Fast-track visa program in Çeşme to pause for 2 days

The fast-track visa program from Çeşme in Türkiye's İzmir province to the Greek Island of Chios, which allows Turkish citizens to obtain a visa without the need to apply in advance, will see a two-day suspension between Oct. 12 and 13.

The Greek authorities raising the cost of port security for international ships from 0.50 cents to 5 euros per passenger underpins this decision.

Following this excessive uptick, the local authorities of Chios Island announced that the current ticket holders would not have the obligation to pay the price gap. However, when they later attempted to collect this payment retrospectively, ferry operators of Türkiye opted to cancel their trips.

Sector representatives from Türkiye underlined that this new decision not only causes financial problems for the tourism agencies, but also creates unfair competition circumstances as this fee was not charged throughout the summer for other Greek islands.

Kadir İnandı, an official from a tourism agency, emphasized that the Greek authorities issued a guarantee that they would not request compensation for the price gap with the ministry's approval on the matter in an official meeting held following the introduction of the law concerning the fee increase.

However, local authorities later informed the Turkish tourism agencies that the ministry had had not provided a favorable assessment, the legislation needed to be enforced and that the whole cost needed to be recovered in retrospect, he noted.

Indicating that this issue has caused significant financial difficulties, İnandı noted that even the two-day cancelation has so far kept about 3,000 tourists from visiting the island.