Covid 19: Thousands apply for Greek Islands travel trial places

Rhodes: 200 seats on the Greek island experiment are being sold to tourits. Photo / Unsplash

Travel-starved Dutch holidaymakers are drawing lots for place on an experiment in overseas travel on the Greek island of Rhodes.

A travel firm in the Netherlands is offering 200 seats on the first Mediterranean package holiday in months, as part of a feasibility study into Covid-19 safe travel.

Those lucky enough to land a place on the eight-day all-inclusive resort trip in Rhodes are being charged €399 ($675) each for the privilege.

However, there are some catches. Guests won't be able to leave the resort for the duration, and will have to quarantine for up to 10 days on return home.

This has not dampened the appeal, with 25000 people having applied for the Dutch government backed scheme.

In the Netherlands the official safe travel advice is to avoid unessential international travel until May. Greek island holidays have been in the 'non-essential' category, until now.

The Netherlands has recorded over 1.2 million cases of Covid-19 and 16,500 deaths according to John Hopkins University, while Greece has recorded just under 8000 deaths from under quarter of a million recorded cases.

How the Greek holiday experiment will work

The Dutch company Sunweb has 187 tickets to sell – around a physically distanced plane load worth of tourists.

Which of the 25000 applicants will get to go is up to a lottery, weighted by criteria given by the Dutch government.

Attendees must be between the age of 18-70 and a negative test result before travel.

Should any guests develop Covid 19 during their stay they will be transferred to a Greek quarantine hotel. However, Sunweb says they will pay for the costs of treatment and quarantine.

Health precautions drawn up between the Dutch health authority RIVM and Sunweb include containing the group to a resort hotel in Rhodes, with on-site staff.

The resort restaurants and swimming pools will be exclusively for guests on the test holiday, but guests will be banned from visits to the beach.

This has not put people off applying.

One applicant, Corina Gouderjaan told the Dutch news station RTL Nieuws that it gave her something to look forward to:
"First I got corona and got very sick. Then I lost my job. So now what? I'm looking forward to doing absolutely nothing at a resort and recovering from this turbulent year."