The president of the Santorini Hoteliers Association is optimistic for the summer season, despite the serious injury of an American tourist by a makeshift firecracker during the Resurrection service in the courtyard of the church Our Lady of the Akathist Hymn in Oia.

Mr. Manolis Karamolegos stated that he is outraged by the unfortunate incident. However, he is optimistic and believes that it will not have a negative effect on the tourist traffic of the island.

He explains that the community and the Municipality of Santorini immediately rushed to help so that the 50-year old woman could be airlifted to Venizelio Hospital of Heraklion within an hour.

He also stressed that the prompt and timely response of the local community was favorably commented upon by major tour-operators, and this has helped to reverse the negative image of the country, due to the incident.

According to general estimations for this year’s tourist traffic, an increase of 15% to 20% is expected in arrivals. The increase is the result of last year’s promotion of Santorini as a gastronomic destination and of the merger of “Aegean” with “Olympic Air”, thanks to which 13 planes will be landing daily on the island.

Two more “British Airways” planes will fly daily to the island, not counting the charter flights.

Another positive development is the addition of a direct flight service from Istanbul to Santorini by “Borat” airline.