Holland sends 200 people on eight-day holiday to Greece as an experiment

Rhodes’ Greek island is ready to welcome its first tourists on April 12

Holland is planning to send 200 people on holiday to Greece for eight days as an experiment to see if tourism is feasible during the pandemic.

The trial will see travellers enjoy an all-inclusive holiday in Rhodes, costing £342 (€399) per person, the BBC reports. 

At least 25,000 people have signed up for the government-backed experiment.

How will the test holiday work?

Tour company Sunweb is offering 187 tickets for people aged 18-70, which will be awarded manually according to criteria set by the government.

They will be chosen by age group and people with high-risk conditions will be excluded, a Sunweb spokeswoman told BBC News. Final choices will be determined by who registered first.

Travellers will be tested before and after their trip. If anyone develops Covid during the trip they will have to quarantine at a Greek Covid hotel but their costs will be covered by the tour company.

Sunweb says it has drawn up safety guidelines for the entire trip, which have been approved by the Dutch public health agency, the RIVM.

The visitors will be given exclusive use of a hotel on Rhodes, with staff the only other people there. They will have the use of the hotel’s swimming pools and restaurants but will not be allowed to go out on to the beach.

Rhodes and the test holiday experiment has left many wondering whether giving people the chance to escape lockdown is ‘responsible or reckless’ as cases continue to rise across Europe and the Netherlands.