An entire vacation in Greece costs like a night in Eilat and the Israelis jump at the opportunity • About a hundred flights are expected to depart from Israel to Greece in the coming month • How much will it cost and how to prepare?
Expect tens of thousands of Israelis to fly abroad on holidays
Photo:
Reuters
Earlier this week, it was reported that as early as this coming Sunday, Israelis will be able to fly on a direct flight to any destination in Greece and without a limit on the number of Israelis who can enter the country.
Following the decision and apparently also the apparent closure on holidays has its impact, an onslaught has been registered on travel agencies selling flights and packages to Greece.
In a survey with several agencies in Israel, they point to interesting data.
Israir will take out no less than 30 flights in 17 days, between September 13 and the end of the month.
Gil Stav, Israir's VP of Marketing and Sales, said: "From the moment the announcement of the opening of Greece to Israelis without restrictions, the ordering rate has more than doubled.
From next week until the end of the month, Israir intends to operate at least 30 flights to Greek destinations, which is a doubling of the number of flights compared to mid-August. "
Israir is not the only airline that operates flights to Greece, but one of its operations.
The Greek company Blue Bird, which operates in Israel through a vacation line company, will also operate about 50 flights over the coming month and also reports very high numbers, "We will continue to fly even if there is a closure, there is no connection between the closure and flights to Greece. "In our sector, everything will continue to work as usual. There is huge demand and the prices are very cheap compared to last year and we expect continued demand in the coming days. Prices start from about 249 dollars for flights and about 349 euros for a package that includes flight and hotel," said Ilan Shalev.
Oren Cohen Maguri, VP of Marketing and Sales at the Flying Carpet, who also markets packages and rents planes to the company's customers, says, "We have hundreds of calls a day more than before the announcement of Greece. There is a tens of percent increase in orders entering Greece from before and after the announcement.
"There is an onslaught on the Greek islands during the holidays, there is an onslaught due to the cheap prices, the desire to escape the threat of closure and spend the holidays in the Greek islands."
So how cheap are the vacations?
At Smartair, we checked for us how much a vacation will cost, which includes a flight and a hotel during the holidays.
Three nights on Rosh Hashanah, at a five-star hotel in Thessaloniki between September 17-20, will cost you $ 585 per person.
Three nights on Sukkot in Kos between October 4-7 will cost $ 574 per person and four nights on Sukkot at a five-star hotel in Rhodes will cost only $ 436 per person.
Oz Gur, CEO of smartair Israel, commented on the enthusiasm of Israelis for the possibility of vacationing in Greece during the holidays: "In recent days, we have seen a jump in the number of searches and holiday bookings for destinations in Greece.
The reduction in the quota of Israeli tourists who can enter Greece and the prices of vacations in Israel during the holidays led Israelis to search for and book a vacation in Greece.
In the last three days we have seen a 40% increase in bookings to Greece for the holiday season.
When the top destinations are Athens, Crete, Thessaloniki and Rhodes "
Israel Today's cooperation and secret flights found Rainier flights to Greece for about NIS 120 for the coming month of October.
The cheapest flights found were to Thessaloniki, but there were flights at similar prices to other destinations in the country.
It is important to note that this is not the peak season in Greece which is starting to cool down already in the area of September.
However, this is not the winter season either, the weather is quite pleasant, but it is possible that during the holiday you will also encounter rain.
Those who decide to vacation in Greece will have to do a corona test 72 hours before landing in Greece and of course present a negative result in English.
In addition, Israeli vacationers will fill out a health declaration on the Ministry of Health website and may have to undergo a corona test that is offered randomly upon landing in Greece, the results of which will wait 24 hours in isolation at the hotel.