– Warm hospitality –
“Last year we were completely surprised by the scale of the influx,” he told AFP, adding that now “we want to promote the island via an Internet marketing campaign and social networks”.
However, Kos faces further headwinds as a tourism destination, with plans to set up a migrant screening and registration centre, dubbed a “hotspot” in EU parlance.
“We don’t want our island to be associated with a camp for migrants,” said deputy mayor in charge of tourism Elias Sifakis.
There is a silver lining for the tourism sector: some believe Greece’s reputation for offering warm hospitality will be bolstered by the crisis, Europe’s largest migrant influx since World War II.
While much of Europe is eager to slam the door on migrants, and a series of Balkans countries have imposed border controls, creating a bottleneck in Greece, the country’s people have shown incredible solidarity.
A huge collection organised in Athens has raised tons of food for the refugees.
“The stories showing villagers hosting refugees, providing food and shelter to refugees are very good opportunities to attract tourists,” said Taleb Rifai, secretary general of the UN’s World Tourism Organization.
An online petition with several hundred thousand signatures has even called for the Nobel Peace Prize to go to Greek islanders who have come to the aid of desperate refugees, proposing to symbolically award it to a trio that includes a grandmother and a fisherman from Lesbos.
