Numerous villages and hotels have been evacuated on Rhodes since Saturday due to large uncontrolled forest fires. Many people – locals as well as vacationers – not only had to leave their suitcases behind, but are now without accommodation because the hotels and guesthouses are fully booked in the high season. The office of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said it was the “largest evacuation operation that has ever taken place in Greece”. Many people were brought to safety in the north of the holiday island.
In the meantime, fires have also broken out on the islands of Euboea and Corfu. Extreme weather conditions prevailed throughout the country, with very high temperatures of up to 45 degrees Celsius, humidity below 15 percent and strong winds.
But not only in Greece, also in Italy and the Balkans heat and storms affect travelers. What are the rights of vacationers who want to fly to one of the affected regions in the near future? And what about bookings in the coming months? What travelers should know now.
Where can Rhodes travelers and relatives get information?
The Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs has set up a hotspot at the airport on the island of Rhodes, where tourists can obtain an exit permit unbureaucratically if they no longer have their identity papers due to the large forest fires on the island. This was reported on Sunday by the Greek state broadcaster ERT. Many people would have had to flee from the fire and may not have had time to take their belongings with them. The civil protection crisis team has set up two telephone numbers for foreign visitors if they are missing relatives. They are +30 210 3681259 and +30 210 3681350, as the authority announced on Twitter.
Can you cancel your holiday because of the heat?
Even if it is almost unbearable around the Mediterranean with temperatures above 40 degrees, holidaymakers do not have the right to cancel or break off a booked trip for full or partial repayment due to extreme heat, explains travel lawyer Paul Degott. In terms of a warranty for defects, you have to be able to tell the tour operator that he made a mistake, Degott explained in an interview with the German Press Agency: “Something didn’t work, and that’s why it’s unreasonable to continue or start the trip.” However, that cannot be said based on the weather conditions alone. It is different if, for example, you have booked a hotel for which the organizer has promised full air conditioning, but the air conditioning does not work. “Of course we are already heavily involved in the warranty area, and that would be the responsibility of the organizer,” explains travel lawyer Degott. “Not because he can do something about the heat, but because he is responsible for the failure of the air conditioning.” Incidentally, travel cancellation insurance does not apply per se in a heat situation, says Degott. This only covers sudden serious illnesses. For example, if someone simply has high blood pressure and does not tolerate the heat well, it is certainly not a sudden serious illness. “A lot of things have to come together extremely.” Only then can you try to recover the cancellation costs that have arisen in this way.
How do tour operators react?
Around 39,000 holidaymakers are currently on Rhodes alone as customers of the largest German travel group, Tui. The group announced that 7,800 of them were directly affected by the forest fires and have already been evacuated. Tui announced that it would no longer bring tourists to Rhodes in view of the severe forest fires. According to its own statements, the tour operator DER Touristik also canceled arrivals until July 26th. However, the flight connections remained in place to fly guests back to Germany, said Aage Dünhaupt, Head of Communications at Tui Germany of the German Press Agency. In addition, many travelers could cancel their flight. Guests who are booked to Rhodes by next Friday can cancel free of charge or rebook to another holiday destination. According to the group, additional Tui employees have flown to Rhodes to look after the guests, and more than 300 service employees took care of the holidaymakers.
Under what conditions can the holiday be canceled free of charge?
Package travelers are best protected under travel law. Smoke and ash in the air, sources of fire very close by – these are in the language of the German Civil Code (BGB) “Unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances” which “significantly affect” the execution of a package tour and therefore give the traveler the right to cancel the booking free of charge. “Circumstances are unavoidable and extraordinary if travelers and tour operators cannot control them. This is the case with natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions, forest fires, earthquakes or seaquakes in or in the immediate vicinity of the travel area,” explains Jennifer Kaiser, specialist advisor for digital and consumer law at the Rhineland-Palatinate consumer advice center.
Important: Not every holiday to France, Portugal or Greece can now be canceled free of charge. The trip must actually be specifically affected. The decisive factor is the location on site – and not the personal sense of security.
The tour operator can also cancel the trip if it cannot go ahead as planned. The travel price must then be reimbursed within 14 days.
What applies to holidaymakers who are already on the move?
Vacationers who have already started their trip can also invoke the package travel law: they can terminate the contract and demand reimbursement for the unused services. If arrival and departure were part of the trip, as is the case with most package holidays, the organizer must also organize and pay for return transport. If the journey home is delayed due to the fire, he is responsible for a maximum of three additional overnight stays.
If you stay despite the impairments, but have to do without excursions that have already been booked or accept a changed round trip route, you can try to have part of the travel price reimbursed after the holiday. Finally, the stay did not go as agreed. However, you should be prepared to have to fight it in court.
Is it also possible to cancel free of charge if the trip does not start for a few weeks?
Nobody knows how the situation will develop in the coming weeks, when the fires will be extinguished and which regions may still be affected – whether there will still be a “significant impairment”. Therefore, the right to free travel cancellation does not apply here. Vacationers can of course cancel, but then have to expect fees. However, due to the corona pandemic, the tour operators are currently more accommodating than ever before and often allow short-term rebookings.
What rights do individual travelers have?
Individual travelers who have booked flights and accommodation separately will also get their money back if the service cannot be provided. If the flight is canceled because of the fires, either a replacement must be offered or the money refunded. However, there is no compensation, not even in the case of delays caused by ash and smoke: Here the airline can refer to extraordinary circumstances that it cannot influence.
In the case of accommodation, the decisive factor is whether the booking was made on the basis of German law. Then the holiday apartment does not have to be paid for if it cannot be occupied, for example because it is in a restricted area. Conversely, if the accommodation is habitable and accessible, the landlord has done his duty. He cannot be held responsible if the sky on the beach is not blue but ash gray or places of interest are inaccessible due to the fires. If the contract is concluded directly with a foreign landlord, the law of the respective country applies.
Does travel cancellation insurance help?
No, the travel cancellation insurance usually does not step in in the event of unavoidable, extraordinary circumstances. It is intended to protect against individual risks, such as falling ill shortly before departure, losing your job or the death of a close relative.