Santorini. Residents of a popular Greek island are suffering from an influx of cruise ship tourists. Here’s what the government wants to do about it now.
It’s thunderous Santorini. But that’s not because of him volcanowhose eruption 3,600 years ago gave the island its current shape. Instead, locals complain. Because more and more tourists are flooding the Greek Cycladic island. It’s too much for the locals.
Last year, 3.4 million tourists visited Santorini. 1.3 million of them came cruise ships. Now, in high season, several of these ships anchor in the Bay of Santorini on some days. Then, hundreds of buses take visitors along narrow serpentine roads to the picturesque towns of Thira, Imerovigli, Oia and Akrotiri. There, people crowd the narrow streets. Checked about 800 times Cruise ships Santorini last summer. This year there will be 815.
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Was a unusual appealabout which Panos Kavallaris, Mayor of the Municipality of Thira, spoke recently social media generalized: “Attention, state of emergency! Another difficult day for our city and our island: 17,000 cruise ship visitors are expected today. The local politician warned his fellow citizens to be “careful” and not leave their homes if possible!
The Greek island of Santorini is a popular tourist destination, especially for cruise ship tourists.
©AFP | ARIS OIKONOMOU
Blockade for local residents so that the tourists have more space? The process shows: the mood in Santorini is one of irritation. Along with Mykonos, Crete and Rhodes, the island is one of the flagships of Greek tourism industry. But the tourism boom is straining the 76-square-kilometer island’s infrastructure to its limits. Buses, vans and rental cars clog the narrow streets.
“Our water consumption has increased by 140% since 2012 and electricity consumption has almost doubled compared to 2019,” reports the island’s president, Zorzos. To fill hotel pools and provide foreign guests with endless showers, scarce water resources are being plundered.
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Many of the 20,000 permanent residents of Island your nerves are on edge. Even some hoteliers find it frightening. “Our living standards have deteriorated in recent years,” Georgios Damigos told Reuters. Damigos presents 14 room hotelwhich his parents opened in the 1980s. “Santorini is a natural wonder,” says Damigos. Now the island is in danger of becoming a “monster.”
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People’s patience is being tested. Looking for Instagramreasons and places for selfies, many tourists even go to private Gardens and stepping on the terraces of houses. So far, most residents have relied on polite appeals. There are signs hanging on many houses that say: “Respect! It’s your vacation, but it’s our home.”
Santorini: Greek island lives off tourism – and suffers from it
It’s the old dilemma. On the one hand, the island lives off tourism. On the other hand, it suffers from it. According to a study by the Association of Greek Tourism Companies (Seven), tourism directly and indirectly represents a third of the total Greek gross domestic product no. On many islands, the part of the tourism in terms of local added value, it is much higher. But at the same time, unbridled growth is destroying the livelihoods of locals. Santorini is now almost 20% populated, denser than the Greek province of Attica. Mayor Zorzos is therefore calling on the central government in Athens to stop construction immediately: the island “cannot cope with a single additional hotel bed or another Airbnb guest room,” says Zorzos.
The biggest problem for Santorini, however, remains the cruise ships. On some days, nearly 20,000 cruise passengers disembark. According to a study by scientists of the University of the Aegean, the island’s infrastructure can accommodate a maximum of 8,000 visitors per day.
In negotiations with cruise lines, Mayor Zorzos hopes to limit the number of daily visitors to this level from 2025. The topic was also the subject of a government brainstorming session in Athens last week. Among other things, the possibility of regulating the number of cruise visitors through higher fees was discussed. So far, disembarking in Santorini has been very cheap: cruise lines pay just 35 cents per passenger to the island’s port company.