An Ottery holidaymaker who was caught up in the ‘chaos’ caused by wildfires in Greece has described travel company Tui’s handling of the crisis as ‘appalling’.
West Hill resident Jess Bailey is often in the local headlines for her campaigning work as a district and county councillor – but this time she found herself at the centre of an international news story.
She flew out to Rhodes with her husband and two daughters on Saturday, July 22, unaware of the scale of the crisis developing as wildfires raged across parts of the island.
Arriving that night, they found the airport full of people trying to leave because of the wildfires. But meanwhile, Tui flights were still arriving from airports around the UK.
Jess told the Herald: “Tui were totally irresponsible in flying my family and me as well as many hundreds of other customers into an emerging crisis. By the time our flight left Bristol airport on Saturday afternoon, hotels were already being evacuated on the island due to the fires.
“Tui flew us in and then abandoned us - they provided us with no information and no support. We spent the night in a rescue centre which was in a school - the rescue centre in the sports arena was already full by the time we got there, which gives you a sense of the scale of what was happening. There were 20 other tourists with us in the classroom in what was basically a makeshift dormitory with mattresses on the floor.
“I’m so grateful for the amazing kindness and compassion of the volunteers of Rhodes who looked after us in the emergency centre.
“I organised our own transport home from Rhodes on Sunday night as it did not feel safe to be there and I am hugely relieved to be home. I feel so bad though for the tourists who had a much worse time than us and had to flee the beaches and for the people of Rhodes who are seeing the fire ravage the island.”
How Jess's experience played out on Twitter
Like many of the other travellers, Jess posted photos and updates on Twitter about her family’s ordeal.
At 1am on Sunday she tweeted: “Now spending the night with hundreds/thousands of Brits in #Rhodes evacuation centre - @TUIUK flew us all in this eve from #Luton #Bristol #Glasgow #eastmidlands *knowing* there was a #wildfire crisis. Why did you do this @TUIUK - just appalling. Where are your reps?”
A few hours later she received an email from Tui – and posted another tweet.
“Totally useless comms from @TUIUK who email at 4.30 am "you may be experiencing some delays at the airport" and that I can source my own transport to hotel. How can I do that when the road is closed due to #fires and like hundreds of others I'm at an evacuation centre?”
She later tweeted: “Unbelievably thankful for the kindness and generosity of the #Rhodes volunteers who, in hugely difficult circumstances, set up and ran the emergency centre at #Venetoklio and tirelessly supported us 💫🙏. Contrast couldn't be greater with the woeful lack of support from @TUIUK.”
At 3.30pm on Monday afternoon Tui said they had flown some travellers back to the UK, were planning more return flights, and had increased the number of representatives in Rhodes to ‘provide support and assistance’.
At 6pm the company said it had cancelled all flights to Rhodes until Friday, July 28, and passengers booked on those flights would receive refunds.
It’s currently not clear whether Tui will be refunding people like Jess and her family who were flown out during the wildfire crisis, were unable to get to their hotels and had to make their own way home.
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