Travel agent TUI has cancelled all holidays to Rhodes until next weekend and will issue refunds to affected customers. 

The travel agent said all bookings to Rhodes will be cancelled up to and including Friday, July 28th. Holidays booked to the south-eastern part of the island up to and including Sunday, July 30th, have also been cancelled. 

TUI also said customers who booked a holiday to any part of Rhodes up to and including July 30th have the option of rebooking their holiday to another destination or cancelling their trip free of charge. 

Splitscreen of wildfires in Rhodes, Greece, 23/07/2023. Image: Rosaleen Ruane.

The company said that it will "be in touch with customers directly if their hotels in the south of the island have been impacted". 

Holidaymakers are asked to contact TUI for further information. According to the travel company, it had around 39,000 guests on the island, 7,800 of whom were affected by the situation. 

Ryanair

Ryanair are currently continuing to operate two flights to Rhodes a week as scheduled. 

Travel journalist Eoghan Corry told The Hard Shoulder until the Department of Foreign Affairs says people cannot go to Rhodes, Irish holidaymakers have no “absolute right” when it comes to cancelling flights and getting a refund. 

“You can’t say, ‘I’m cancelling, I’m not going because of the fires’, and get your money back,” he said. 

“Ryanair has said they are going to continue the flights, because they have people to get home, it’s important the flights go out to get people.” 

Mr Corry said people should keep in mind that the areas affected by the wildfires are not largely tourist areas. 

“They're in air-conditioned places,” he said. “The restaurants and the waterparks are well fitted out to dela with the complications of a heatwave. 

“These couple of resorts are affected, but it pales into insignificance with the trauma the local population has had to go through.”