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Greece: Overtourism or Poor Management? What is the Real Problem of Popular Destinations?

Santorini, Greece. Photo Source: Visit Greece / Y. Skoulas

Is overtourism one of Greece’s greatest challenges or is it poor management that creates endless overcrowding and congestion at highly visited Greek destinations?

After the halt of tourism operations in 2020 due to the outbreak of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic , tourism traffic to Greece started picking up pace in the summer of 2021, increasing optimism among tourism professionals but also raising concerns about long-term issues including overtourism .

Tourism experts are now questioning previous practices and searching for new answers on how to address the phenomenon.

According to Dimitrios Buhalis , visiting professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, tourism is a complicated sector that – depending on the circumstances – needs long-term strategies to be able to develop new experiences based on the diversity of the tourism product.

“This may sound easy but in fact, it is a very complicated process because tourism must be sustainable, profitable, support local communities and create experiences that visitors will convey to others,” he said, during a conference organized by job search engine Skywalker.gr on Thursday.

The event took place online with the participation of Greek tourism professionals Nikos Karaflos, CEO of Dexamenes Seaside Hotel; Anna Manias , co-owner of Greeking.me; Andreas Fatouros , CEO of Clio Muse Tours; Sustainable Tourism Expert Iyad Kayali ; and Michael Dritsas , chief of staff of Deputy Development Minister Christos Dimas.

Does overtourism exist?

While looking for answers, tourism experts set new a questions : Does overtourism even exist?

“We tend to simplify things. Overtourism does not exist. Greece’s problem is mostly caused by bad management policies ,” Professor Buhalis explained during the event.

He went on to add that decreasing tourism flows is not the answer.

“Most people discuss on ways to decrease the number of tourists. This is not going to happen. We expect tourism flows to increase further in the future,” he said, adding that as people improve the quality of their lives, travel is the next thing they will look for to create new experiences.

“So, the real issue is to manage tourism demand in a smart way and look for ways to evenly distribute tourism traffic to Greek destinations . We must promote different forms of tourism, experiences and other destinations to avoid overcrowding,” Buhalis added.

New gov’t approach

Meanwhile, new key strategies announced by the Tourism Ministry are in line with Buhalis’ suggestions, and focus on introducing other destinations and redirecting travelers to new locations.

Greek Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias

In a recent interview to Greek newspaper Kathimerini , Greek Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias said that efforts were being made to introduce lesser-known destinations to travelers through a unified information network.

Kikilias informed that a large part of the ministry’s actions is focused on the mainland and lesser on the popular islands, aiming to maintain authenticity and diversify tourism offerings.

The minister added that environmental policies are key to developing a sustainable tourism model that will create added value and distribute travelers evenly across the country’s destinations.

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Tourism’s dark side: Are those who love Greece killing it?

Average Greek property prices increased by 12 percent last year and are set to increase by another 14 percent this year, according to Bank of Greece data.

Athens, Greece – Shortly after the conservative New Democracy party came to power in Greece in 2019, computer scientist Nikos Larisis left his job in the Netherlands and repatriated to the Mediterranean country for a salary worth a third of the 9,000 euros ($9,500) he was making per month.

He appeared to vindicate New Democracy’s pledge to bring back about half a million educated young workers who had fled the country’s economic depression from 2010 to 2018.

Keep reading

‘without rules we cannot live’: greece seeks ways to tackle ‘overtourism’, after slew of disasters, greeks wonder what is happening to their democracy, an ex-goldman sachs banker vies to preside over the troubled greek left.

The conservatives returned to power for a second term in June with little evidence that many Greeks had followed in Larisis’s footsteps.

Even he and his fiancee, Eleftheria Tsiartsiani, a public elementary schoolteacher, had been feeling stuck and were considering going abroad.

They were paying a quarter of their joint income in rent and could not borrow enough money to buy the two-bedroom home in which they dreamed of starting their family.

Then the government announced a 1.8-billion-euro ($1.9bn) programme to help young couples buy their first home.

“Eleftheria told me, ‘Niko, we can buy a home. We can reconsider. We needn’t pick up stakes and leave,'” Larisis told Al Jazeera.

But after looking into the government’s offer, called My Home, the couple became disillusioned.

“It wasn’t designed well at all. It led people on and destroyed their dreams,” Larisis said.

Larisis and Tsiartsiani could borrow 90,000 euros ($96,000) under the programme, but that did not secure an attractive family home in a market geared towards foreign buyers spending 250,000 euros ($270,000) for a Golden Visa, which at the time offered them five years of legal residence and a path to citizenship. The spending requirement for the Golden Visa has since changed to double that amount.

“I’m going to let the state keep its 90,000 euros,” Tsiartsiani said. “There’s no point in buying a small, old apartment, dark and dank, that doesn’t fit our needs, smelling of mould in an unkempt building and being in debt up to my neck for the rest of my life.”

Moreover, Tsiartsiani said: “We saw a lot of sales ads that stipulated, ‘The property isn’t for sale through the My Home programme.'”

Sellers told the couple they did not believe they would get their money from the government and wanted cash only.

The experience convinced the couple that Greek law was tilted in favour of non-Greeks.

My Home did not allow beneficiaries to rent out their property and restricted them to buying a property close to work. The Golden Visa programme has no such limitations.

“There’s a big party going on. Foreign capital is trying to take advantage of the situation here, and the laws are helping them. Golden Visas allow people to come and buy homes here … while others are struggling with loans they can’t repay,” Larisis said.

The sting in tourism’s tail

Greece’s big economic success under New Democracy has been tourism, which has boomed since the COVID-19 pandemic, attracting three times Greece’s population each year. It brought in a near-record 18 billion euros ($19bn) in revenue last year.

Tourism helps bring in the foreign currency with which Greece services its loans, and it has helped existing homeowners. About 105,000 properties are now offered on short-term rentals through Airbnb.

But it has also worsened a demographic problem. By restoring real estate value lost during the depression, it has put first homes out of the reach of young people.

“We emerged from the pandemic with a bit of extra cash, … which was mainly concentrated on housing,” said real estate consultant Stelios Bouras, who runs the Greek Guru real estate news website. “Working at home, people wanted larger houses. … This coincided also with a massive increase in Greek homes going to foreign buyers.”

Average Greek property prices increased by 12 percent last year, and are set to increase by another 14 percent this year, according to Bank of Greece data.

That has spurred investment in real estate, but almost all of it is geared towards the top end of the market.

The Ellinikon is a prime example – a 600-hectare (1,500-acre) urban redevelopment of what used to be the Athens airport, nestled among the city’s southern suburbs.

Its first project, Marina Tower, now rising along the Attica shore, will be Greece’s tallest building when it is finished.

It will also be one of the most expensive. Every floor has been sold at a reputed 16,000 euros ($17,000) per square metre (nearly 11sq ft).

The Ellinikon’s owners said real estate will average 10,000 euros ($10,600) per square metre, but that is still well above the capabilities of most Greeks.

“The growth in the market which everyone is citing right now in terms of investment is for your high net worth individual from abroad and your top income level in Greece,” Bouras told Al Jazeera.

“For the vast majority, there is zero development. And if you look at government policy to increase supply levels, there is almost no movement,” he added.

The Ellinikon’s CEO makes no apology for the fact that 30 percent of the 1.2 billion euros ($1.27bn) of real estate he has already sold has gone to Syrians, Egyptians, Emiratis, other Europeans and Americans.

Odysseas Athanasiou argued that by attracting foreign buyers, The Ellinikon opens up Greece’s stagnant economy.

“For many, many decades, Greece was redistributing the pie of wealth, or poverty, if you will, and now with the new income that is coming from all places in the world, we are bringing in new money. The new money will be distributed more or less to everybody,” Athanasiou told Al Jazeera.

Among other benefits, Athanasiou says, The Ellinikon will create 80,000 permanent jobs.

Shrinking, ageing population

Greek society faces a potentially existential problem, and property prices are making it worse.

Its population has been shrinking since the turn of the century. That shrinkage accelerated after its eurozone partners imposed austerity policies on it in return for emergency loans in 2010.

Greece’s birth rate fell by 30 percent from 2011 to 2021 to under 84,000 per year, slipping ever-further below the death rate, according to the Hellenic Statistical Service.

The cumulative population loss during that decade was 329,451, which roughly tallies with the 2021 census recording a 3.1 percent population drop.

Given that each Greek paid on average 5,758 euros ($6,125) in taxes and social security contributions last year, this drop represents a loss of nearly 2 billion euros ($2.13bn) a year in state revenue – about 3.2 percent – over the long term.

Analysts said that by mid-century, Greece could find it difficult to generate the current level of state revenue – 60 billion euros last year ($64bn) – or man its armed forces.

The population drop is especially damaging in combination with ageing. Only 4.2 million Greeks work, supporting a total population of 10.5 million, including three million pensioners.

New Democracy has begun Greece’s first capitalised social security scheme for the under 25s, but for now, the majority of pensioners relies on current contributions.

New Democracy has also launched a series of measures to tackle the population decline and may have had a measure of success.

It delivered on promises to reduce the income tax, sales tax and social security contributions and offered paternity leave and extended daycare.

It offered a 2,000-euro ($2,200) cash handout per child, raised the tax rebate for families by 1,000 euros ($1,065) and now promises to drive up average salaries from 1,170 to 1,500 euros ($1,245 to $1,600).

Signs of improvement

Greece may have begun to see a faint heartbeat of improvement. Live births increased by 1.2 percent in 2020 and by 0.7 percent in 2021.

But My Home, its biggest direct measure to help young couples move ahead with their lives, has met with mixed results.

The programme was meant to accommodate 137,000 young people, but only 4,500 applications have received state approval and not all of them have gone on to receive bank approval.

“All programmes undergo evaluation and correction,” Maria Syrregela, deputy labour minister under the previous government told Al Jazeera. “My Home was the start of an ongoing state programme to provide housing.”

Syrregela was in charge of demographic policy, and perhaps her biggest achievement was that she got the opposition to sign onto a multiyear plan of action.

“Demographic policy isn’t about doing something today and having tangible results tomorrow,” she said.

“If you start a programme now, you might see results in 10 years. That’s why governments tended not to bother.”

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• CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

How Greece is rethinking its once bustling tourism industry

With arrivals down 70 percent, the nation plots its post-pandemic future with a focus on sustainable tourism.

A couple visits the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. The columned Parthenon is usually surrounded by tourist crowds, but this year, due to the novel coronavirus, tourism to the country has dropped precipitously since March.

Around the middle of June, a week before some international flights to Greece resumed, Michael Ermogenis and a handful of other Santorini locals gathered for their daily coffee at a bakery in the postcard-perfect village of Oia.

The stone streets of the village were quiet and empty this early morning, as they had been for the past several months since Greece ’s strict quarantine measures had taken effect. But unlike other mornings, conversation at the bakery centered around news that a tourist couple and their daughter had shown up on the island. They had sailed from France to Greece and were staying in Oia.

( Related: A surge in coronavirus cases jolts France after a quiet summer. )

So strange was the phenomenon that nobody could talk about much else for a couple of days—this on an island which typically welcomes 2.8 million visitors a year. “That’s the sort of effect that the isolation had on the locals, that everyone started talking about these three people who had arrived,” says Ermogenis. To his knowledge, they were the first foreign visitors to step foot on Santorini since Greece emerged from its lockdown on May 4—the first of what the islanders hoped would be many more.

Angelika Lymperi and Alexandra Mpeleri, two nurses who work for the Hellenic National Public Health Organization, prepare a COVID-19 test for a traveler at the Athens International Airport.

Tour guides with signs and face masks wait at the port in Santorini's capital, Fira. The popular island of Santorini has seen a drastic decrease in tourism.

Yet, by mid-July, even after international arrivals were once again allowed into all Greek airports and sea ports— minus several high-risk countries like the United States and Brazil —things did not appear to be reverting to normal. Although many foreign visitors were returning to Santorini, fear of the virus as well as economic hardship kept most people away.

From compliance to concern

Greece has been lauded for its swift and effective response to the novel coronavirus threat. Immediately following the confirmation of the first three cases of COVID-19 on February 27, and before a single death was recorded, Greek authorities started putting in place restrictions on large gatherings, including in educational and religious institutions.

By March 23, restrictions on all nonessential movement throughout the country were enacted, officially commencing a full lockdown in Greece. Over the following six weeks, people wanting to leave their residence were required to send a text message to a government-issued phone number with a code—a number from one to six—stating the reason for their movement. Among the acceptable reasons were: travel to or from one’s workplace (during work hours), going to the pharmacy or supermarket, visiting a doctor, and personal exercise.

For the most part, everyone followed these measures without complaint. But with the approach of the summer tourist season, compliance quickly turned to worry. More than a quarter of Greece’s GDP comes from tourism and the thought of losing out on the much awaited and much needed income from the millions of tourists who would arrive in Greece this year was terrifying for some.

( Related: How clean is the air on planes? )

“It’s a choice between death by hunger or death by coronavirus,” says George Koukoulas, an Athenian who owns Mezedaki by Lordos , a taverna in Kaisariani, an Athens neighborhood known for its restaurants. Although Koukoulas’s taverna did better this summer than he had anticipated, business was noticeably down compared to other years. “This is an area with many Airbnbs, so without tourists we don’t have the same amount of people,” he says.

Crisis in Lesbos

Tourism numbers have steadily climbed in Greece over the past decade, reaching a record high of 33 million in 2018. But recent years have seen a dip in numbers in certain locations, such as the island of Lesbos, where the ongoing refugee crisis has scared away most of its annual visitors. Moria, Lesbos’s infamous refugee and migrant camp, burned to the ground on September 9, leaving 13,000 people homeless.

“The reality of the island was never correctly shown in the media,” says Aphrodite Vati, a hotel owner and deputy mayor of tourism on Lesbos. “All you hear about is Lesbos and Moria and the refugee crisis and all this sadness, but at the same time, this isn’t the reality of the island, it’s just a piece of the island.

“By no means do I want at any point to minimize the dire conditions—the unlivable conditions—the people in Moria were living in,” says Vati, who herself volunteered her time and resources throughout the worst of the crisis. But, she says, “people were and still are afraid to come.” This fear, compounded by the coronavirus this year, has meant that many businesses on the island have not survived the steep downturn in tourist arrivals.

Silver linings for some

Greece is expecting a 70 percent decrease in visitor numbers by the end of this tourist season. Islands such as Santorini, Mykonos, and Rhodes, which depend on mass tourism and a more international crowd, will be the hardest hit. Whereas islands such as Ikaria, lesser known to foreign tourists, may actually end up faring much better.

Ivanka Gancheva, from Bulgaria, wears mandatory PPE while cleaning rooms at Canaves Oia, where she has worked as a housekeeper for the last 14 years. Despite new government regulations requiring hotels to skip housekeeping service, the luxury hotel allows guests to choose the type of cleaning they would prefer in order to feel safe.

Desislava Karaganska, also from Bulgaria, wears a mask at the reception desk at Canaves Oia—a five-star hotel where she has worked since 2010. She says that the main difference from other years is that many of the bookings are now received last minute. And that there are no American guests.

( Related: Eat like a god on this sun-soaked Greek island .)

“We don’t depend on mass tourism and we don’t depend on tourists from abroad,” says Isidoros Plytas, co-founder and owner of Ikaria Surf School . This year, with more Greeks traveling within their own country, there were even more Greek visitors than usual on the island. “Because we depend on Greeks, [the tourism decline] didn’t affect us so much.”

In particular, Ikaria businesses involving outdoor sports and activities were less impacted by the downturn, because, as Plytas explains, “lots of Greeks turned towards nature and sports [during the lockdown].” In previous years, most Greeks went to Ikaria for the summer festivals; this year they wanted to explore alternative activities, says Plytas, whose surfing school has been having a great season. “They were asking me about hiking, they were asking me about wine-tasting and cooking lessons.”

Opportunities in disguise

The pandemic and subsequent slow tourist season have been an opportunity for Greece to rethink and reinvent the way it does tourism: how can it be more sustainable and less driven by mass consumerism? According to Ermogenis, who is behind the Save Oia campaign that promotes a more responsible travel experience on Santorini, there are several aspects to think about during this brief respite from the usual crowds.

Achilleas Aggelidakis, a graphic designer, works at the café Lygeris, in the town of Akamatra, on Ikaria.

Maria Mantzourani, an employee at B.loose clothing store in Oia, Santorini, says she works less now because of the pandemic. “I feel that my workload is more reasonable," she says.

“One is the degradation of the natural environment,” he says, “and the other is the [subsequent] degradation of the experience the tourists have.”

The number of tourists who landed on Santorini on any given day had become so high that many feared the infrastructure and ecosystem of the island would not be able to handle it for much longer. “These are the things that are going to need to change if Greece is going to continue to rely on tourism as one of its top two or three sources of income,” says Ermogenis.

A two-hour ferry ride from Santorini lies Paros, Greece’s first island to attempt elimination of all plastic waste. Leading this fight is Clean Blue Paros , an initiative run by Common Seas .

“Even in a year with so much more financial uncertainty and stress, we’ve increased the number of businesses that are a part of Clean Blue Paros,” says project manager Zana Kontomanoli.

Kontomanoli says she thinks that the pandemic has been largely responsible for this unforeseen opening for more individuals and businesses to become involved in the initiative. The people who were too busy to engage with the initiative during last year’s tourist season, this year had “more time on their hands to take the appointment and could hear about the changes they could bring about in their businesses,” she says.

“It’s [been] an amazing opportunity in disguise,” she says. “It’s just given us time to relax and see how things could possibly be.”

Related Topics

• SUSTAINABLE TOURISM
• CORONAVIRUS

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Greece Announces New Plan to Protect Some of Its Pristine Beaches

The government has pledged to crack down on rapid development, and on seaside businesses seeking to take advantage of a tourist boom. But some residents and conservationists are unimpressed.

By Niki Kitsantonis

Reporting from Athens

The Greek government on Friday published a list of 198 “untrodden beaches” that it said are now off limits to bars, restaurants and large public gatherings in its latest attempt to contain development and address the backlash to the throngs of tourists that descend on the country’s coastlines each year.

The move comes amid growing frustration among residents of Greek islands and parts of the coastal mainland that are popular with foreign visitors. Protests ballooned into a nationwide “beach towel movement” last summer as disgruntled locals complained that they were being pushed off their own beaches by businesses seeking to take advantage of a tourist boom that brought more than 32 million foreign visitors to Greece last year .

On the country’s Cycladic islands, local residents joined forces with the authorities to push back against a wave of construction .

Greece’s conservative government has pledged to crack down on the development, and on seaside businesses that violate regulations. In February it passed a law aimed at regulating the use of the country’s coastline, imposing penalties of up to 60,000 euros for businesses occupying more than 50 percent of Greek beaches with umbrellas and sun beds.

Critics said the law did not go far enough to curb the problem, with some claiming that the government was perpetuating the issue by not tackling illegal land use more comprehensively.

The list of “untrodden beaches,” unveiled in a joint agreement between Greece’s finance and environment ministers, is part of a broader effort to restore balance, the government said. “The main goal is to combine environmental protection with sustainable development,” Kostis Hatzidakis, the economy and finance minister, said on Friday.

“The environment is a valuable component of the Greek tourist product,” he said.

Under the new initiative, the government was putting public assets “under a strict framework of rules, penalties and obligations,” Mr. Hatzidakis said. Inspections and transparency would be increased, as would “the enforcement of the law,” he added.

The beaches on the list are in areas included in the European Union’s Natura program, a network of vulnerable habitats across Europe that are protected under European law. Among the beaches listed on Friday are spots on popular islands such as Milos, Naxos, Lesbos, Samothrace and in the southern Peloponnese peninsula.

The islands were selected based on the advice of the country’s Natural Environment and Climate Change Agency and are all “areas of high ecological importance,” Theodoros Skylakakis, the environment and energy minister, said on Friday.

Under the new initiative, no section of those beaches can be auctioned off for commercial use, and the presence of sun-loungers and umbrellas will be prohibited, as will the organization of public events involving more than 10 people.

Another initiative being introduced by the government is a new app called “MyCoast,” on which people can report violations.

Some environmentalists in Greece were not impressed by Friday’s announcement. Eleni Andrianopoulou, a resident of Naxos and a member of a local “Save the beaches” group, said the government’s original plan had been for more than 1,000 beaches nationwide to be covered, adding that Natura areas require “real protection.”

“From the beginning we had stressed that this reform for untrodden beaches was a fraud.”

Demetre Karavellas, director of the World Wildlife Fund Greece, said the authorities were jumping the gun with their list of pristine beaches, noting that there are more than 100 marine and coastal areas in Greece that are recognized by the Natura program but have yet to be effectively managed or conserved.

“The government should start by complying with its basic legal obligations before creating new vague categories of protection,” he said.

Niki Kitsantonis is a freelance correspondent for The Times based in Athens. She has been writing about Greece for 20 years, including more than a decade of coverage for The Times. More about Niki Kitsantonis

Dispatch: Greece Is for Tourists

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Greece Is for Tourists

As foreigners flood the country, ordinary greeks can’t afford the sacred rite of a summer holiday..

ATHENS—On the southern slopes of the Acropolis, tourists in flip-flops clamber across rough rocks in search of the perfect Parthenon selfie. The city’s central cafes are crammed. And, down at the port, officials in pristine white uniforms carefully direct the cars, people, and bicycles setting sail across the Aegean Sea. It’s summer in Athens, and the Greek tourism industry is having a very good year.

As a smallish country of only 10.3 million people, Greece is already set to beat the country’s 2019 record of 33.1 million foreign visitors, now welcoming more than 1 million travelers a week, according to Greek Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias. Hotels on popular Greek islands are fully booked through late September—well beyond the traditional season—and celebrity spotting has become a sport. Images of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, actress Demi Moore, and rapper 50 Cent are being posted from the bars of Mykonos, the waters of the Ionian Sea, and the yachts of the Cyclades.

But ordinary Greeks are not basking in Greece’s successful summer.

Tourists pose for selfies at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens on Aug. 11.

“Greece is for tourists only,” said Amalia Zavacopoulou, a single working mother from Athens. “Everything is more expensive, from fuel to something as simple as a souvlaki [a Greek staple street food],” and ordinary Greeks, she said, are struggling to keep up with the budgets of their foreign guests.

Her electricity bills have risen nearly 50 percent since before the pandemic. Fuel costs in Greece have risen by more than 23 percent this year due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and Russian efforts to starve Europe of energy. Greece relies on Russia for about 40 percent of its natural gas, so it has been hit particularly hard.

Inflation hit 12 percent this summer, its highest level in 29 years, according to data released by Eurostat, the official statistical authority of the European Union. And in a nation where the minimum wage is 713 euros per month, more than 43 percent of the labor force can’t afford to take a holiday, according to a survey by the European Trade Union Institute. Return ferry tickets to an island last year for a family of four, including a car, cost around 600 euros.

This year, it’s over 850 euros, according to the Greek Ministry of Shipping and Island Policy. The cheapest hotel on the Greek island of Mykonos this week costs at least 200 euros per night. That’s prohibitive even for most middle class Greeks. In total, a family holiday to a modest island destination would cost someone earning double the minimum wage a full month’s salary. And that’s before accounting for food, drinks, and restaurant costs.

Yet Athenians’ biggest complaint of all is the rise in rent.

“We in Greece had the big financial problems of 2010 to 2016. We recovered. Everything went well, and then came COVID, and then the war,” said Giorgios Stampoulos, an Athens cab driver for over 22 years. “Now, the tourists came back. We have a lot of tourists. … But the problem is we can’t afford an apartment because it’s all Airbnb for tourists, and if you find something, they want double or triple from last year.”

Before the pandemic, a modest two-bedroom apartment in central Athens would rent for roughly 300 euros a month. Now, the monthly price is at least 550 euros. Prices in large part have soared as tourists, expatriates, and digital nomads are making the most of the capital’s comparatively low rents and living costs. “If you have a Western European salary, Athens is a good base,” said 27-year-old Ben Biasi, a French tourist strolling through the pedestrian backstreets of Athens’s Plaka neighborhood.

Giorigios Stampoulos, 50, an Athens cab driver for over 22 years, waits for tourists arriving at Athens International Airport on July 5.

Taxis and buses wait outside Athens International Airport to pick up tourists seeking a ride into the city on July 5.

“Let’s go to an island, buy a house, and work from the house!” he said to his group of friends.

Companies like Airbnb and Booking.com have been catering to not only tourists but those seeking longer-term stays. One such company is Blueground, which has more than 1,000 fully furnished apartments in Athens, rented out to mostly U.S. citizens for around 1,200 euros per month.

“Business is a booming! It’s good,” said Demetri Geras, 27, from Blueground. “They come for the sun. It’s the Florida of Europe.”

A family holiday to a modest island destination would cost someone earning double the minimum wage a full month’s salary.

As a Greek-American with family here, however, Geras recognizes the hardships that Greeks are facing. “Most of the youth here are living with their parents. They make less than 1,000 euros a month, so they can’t move out.” Although he works in property, Geras sees the problem as a lack of fair employment opportunity and remuneration from employers.

“We can point fingers at people in real estate, but it’s almost criminal how much [Greeks] get paid,” he said. “They are almost starving. … Wages are not so great due to austerity measures and low Greek minimum wage. Food and rent have gone up. Homeowners have raised their Airbnb prices for foreigners who are coming to Athens. And Greeks are the ones paying the price.”

A street vendor sits in central Athens on Aug. 18.

One of those people paying the price is street artist and graphic designer Kostas Sergiou, 36. “I’m struggling,” he said. “In March, I had a health problem, a panic attack. … The cause was stress.” Sergiou’s landlady put up his rent, and now, he’s struggling to find the money to pay his bills.

Summer holidays are sacred to Greeks, and most Athenians tend to flee the city heat for vacations on the coast or mountains. Sergiou is staying put. “I prefer to stay here because I feel less stressed. … For us Greeks, it’s cheaper to go on a trip outside Greece than to an island.”

Despite the economic hardships, Greeks are still finding ways to have a break. Drive along the coast from Athens to the ancient Temple of Poseidon, known as Sounio, this summer, and you will find lines of parked cars dotted around rocky swimming holes. The so-called Athenian Riviera is packed.

As city residents seek swims closer to home, Greeks also continue to have a relatively high level of property ownership within their families, and many Greeks are choosing to take breaks at their family homes or with friends who own property. Others are finding cheaper alternatives like “free camping,” playing a cat-and-mouse game with authorities as they erect tents along the coast before being told to move on or saturating areas where it is tolerated, such as the far-flung Greek island of Tilos, which has seen a spike in campers this year.

Others, still, are going abroad to European destinations like Berlin, Sergiou said, as Greece becomes unaffordable.

But amid it all, a trace of traditional Greek attitudes remains. “Open your Instagram, and you see everyone splashing about. … Summer is summer,” Sergiou said. “Greek people will go wherever they can and face their problems in September.”

Tourists watch a street performer below the Acropolis in the Greek capital, Athens, on June 27.

Ayman Oghanna is a journalist, photographer, and broadcaster based in Athens. Twitter:  @AymanOghanna  Instagram:  @ayman_oghanna

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‘Red lights are flashing’: Athens tourism explosion threatens ancient sites

Visitor numbers to hit 30m – three times nation’s population – as experts grapple to balance economic gains with conservation

H ordes of tourists huddle in groups along the cobbled boulevard beneath the Acropolis on a late November morning more summery than autumnal. Others get on and off the open-top doubledeckers running the riviera route. A man dressed as an ancient Marathon warrior poses “for a fee” with the majestic citadel in the background.

“We’re having a great year,” says the Greek tourism minister, Vassilis Kikilias. “It’s almost December and the season is still going which is exactly what we want – to extend it, bit by bit.”

Tourism in Athens – as Greece at large – has defied all expectation. The sector, the country’s economic engine, was budgeted to bring in €15bn this year and appeared doomed when bookings froze in February at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Instead, earnings are more likely to exceed €18bn with visitor numbers poised to come close to 30 million – nearly three times the nation’s population – despite the war, absence of Chinese visitors and the unwanted appearance of jellyfish, says Kikilias.

At the height of the summer, about 16,000 holidaymakers each day were making the arduous climb up to the Acropolis. In the alleyways of Plaka, the neighbourhood beneath the ancient site, shopkeepers say they have never had it so good. “If anything, we just want them to go home now,” says Anna Simou, who works in a contemporary Greek design store in the district. “We’re all exhausted and that’s with management employing new staff.”

But the post-pandemic bounceback is not without risks. Kikilias is the first to say that the thriving industry needs to be spread more evenly beyond the “two and a half regions” drawing the crowds. Sustainability is also on the mind of Kostas Bakoyannis, the mayor of Athens, who last week called for a city tax to be placed on visitors to help cope with the surge in demand on services. In a departure from a time when the Greek capital was viewed invariably as a transit route to the islands, more than 7 million tourists are estimated to have descended on the metropolis in 2022.

“It’s unfair that 650,000 permanent residents in the heart of ancient Athens should foot the bill,” Bakoyannis says. “If we want to sustain the city we need to adapt in the way that almost every other European capital has, and introduce a city tax on visitors.”

Americans arriving on 63 direct flights a week have been key to making Greece the world’s third most popular tourist destination this year, according to industry figures. But as officials tally the success of a sector that accounts for 25% of GDP, the spectre of overtourism – long evident on islands such as Santorini – has spurred concerns over the dangers soaring numbers pose for the conservation of cultural gems.

As home to 18 Unesco world heritage sites, Greece is increasingly highlighting the challenges of managing visitor numbers, with experts emphasising the fine balance that needs to be struck between protecting ancient monuments and developing them for touristic use. The 495–429BC Acropolis, which is among the designated sites, was itself at the centre of controversy when in 2020 the government installed concrete pathways around the Periclean masterpiece and an unsightly glass and steel lift financed by private donors to improve access.

“Reds lights are flashing,” says Peter DeBrine, Unesco’s leading tourism adviser.“We have to start asking how much is too much and 16,000 visitors clogging a monument like the Acropolis every day sounds like way too much.”

DeBrine said studies had shown that, more than ever, travellers wanted sustainable options.

With tourism roaring back in both Europe and the US, it was imperative, he said, that capacity measures were adopted at popular heritage sites.

“We have gone from overtourism to revenge tourism with the same net effect,” he told the Guardian, describing the latter as a pent-up response to the pandemic. “What is needed is a radically different approach which starts with consumers but extends to tourism and heritage management. It’s clear that authorities have to take measures to relieve overcrowding at world heritage sites if the tourism experience isn’t to be degraded and conservation ensured.”

Unesco’s 50th anniversary convention in Delphi debated the impacts of the climate crisis and overtourism. It has urged members to change marketing tactics by focusing on attracting fewer, high-spending and lower-impact tourists, rather than large groups.

“Our hope is that tickets will soon only be sold online because that would be a sure way of limiting access,” says DeBrine, adding that adjustment of ticket prices according to season could also be enforced with entrance fees costing more at the height of summer. “Choosing to travel during the low or shoulder season makes a huge impact.”

Heritage sites in east Asia recently began implementing a new Unesco visitor management and strategy tool to identify a baseline for sustainable tourism.

“It’s given us a snapshot,” explained DeBrine. “We realise tourism is the lifeblood for so many communities and vital to local economies but overtourism is a real danger. Either you’re clever and you take measures or you kill the goose that lay the golden egg.”

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Wednesday, April 24, 2024 3:42 pm (Paris)

In Greece, not everyone is pleased by the explosive growth of tourism

The great success of Greece's tourism industry, which employs one in five of the country's working people, is also a cause for concern for some islanders and environmentalists.

By  Marina Rafenberg   (Athens (Greece) correspondent)

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This summer, under sometimes scorching temperatures in Athens, tourists waited almost an hour before they can visit the Acropolis. Visitor numbers have jumped by 80% since 2019, according to the Greek Ministry of Culture. In July, up to 23,000 people a day climbed the hill of the famous site, according to the agency operating archeological sites. In early August, the ministry decided to make visits to Greece's most famous site regulated, starting in September. A maximum of 20,000 people will be able to climb the hill every day. According to the pilot project, between 8 am and 12 pm, 8,000 people divided into four groups will be able to visit the site; then, between 12 pm and 8 pm, up to 12,000 people divided into eight groups will be able to follow.

From Athens to the Greek islands, overtourism is becoming a headache for the Greek government, which is nonetheless delighted with the good health of a sector that accounts for 25% of the country's gross domestic product and employs one in five of the working population.

The fires that struck the country at the end of July, and in particular the tourist island of Rhodes, where images of hotel evacuations were relayed around the world, have certainly frightened the industry, which hopes not to suffer a negative impact in 2024, but throughout Greece, residents are increasingly rebelling against hypertourism. For several days now, a "towel movement" has been mobilizing from the island of Paros to Crete, calling for free beaches that are not privatized by bars or hotels with deckchairs and umbrellas.

A picture of Vroskopos Beach on the Cycladic island of Kea in Greece recently made the rounds on social media. On the left, it shows the deserted bay in July 2018, when it was only accessible via a small dirt road. The landscape on the right, captured in October 2022, looks quite different: 75 small houses under construction crowd the hill overlooking the beach, which is due to be transformed into a luxury hotel complex.

"This is what tourism development means for our country's natural landscapes," one Greek citizen fumed on Twitter. While most are delighted with the health of the tourism industry – which accounts for 25% of the country's gross domestic product and employs one in five working people – some are worried about the sector's explosive growth.

On Sifnos, the mayor has asked the government to step in to preserve his island. He proposed that measures be taken to prohibit the construction of swimming pools at a time when the Greek islands are often short of water, or to authorize only the construction of houses that respect Sifnos' traditional architecture.

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Travel and tourism's total contribution to GDP in Greece 2019-2022

Total contribution of travel and tourism to GDP in Greece in 2019 and 2022 (in billion euros)

Share of travel and tourism's total contribution to GDP in European Union member countries (EU-27) and the United Kingdom (UK) in 2019 and 2022

Distribution of travel and tourism spending in Greece in 2019 and 2022, by type

Distribution of travel and tourism expenditure in Greece 2019-2022, by tourist type

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Total contribution of travel and tourism to employment in Greece in 2019 and 2022 (in million jobs)

Inbound tourism

• Premium Statistic Number of inbound tourists in Greece 2005-2023
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Number of inbound tourists in Greece 2005-2023

Number of international tourists in Greece from 2005 to 2023 (in 1,000s)

Leading inbound travel markets in Greece from 2019 to 2023, by number of arrivals (in 1,000s)

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Number of inbound tourist visits to Greece 2019-2022, by region

Number of international visits to Greece from 2019 to 2022, by region (in 1,000s)

International travel receipts in Greece 2003-2023

Value of international travel receipts in Greece from 2003 to 2023 (in million euros)

International tourist expenditure in Greece 2019-2023, by purpose of trip

Value of international travel receipts in Greece from 2019 to 2023, by purpose of travel (in million euros)

Inbound tourist destinations

• Premium Statistic Number of international air arrivals in Athens, Greece 2010-2023
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Number of international air arrivals in Athens, Greece from 2010 to 2023 (in 1,000s)

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Number of international air arrivals in Thessaloniki, Greece from 2010 to 2023 (in 1,000s)

International air arrivals to South Aegean region of Greece 2010-2023, by island

Number of international air arrivals on selected islands in the South Aegean region of Greece from 2010 to 2023 (in 1,000s)

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Number of international air arrivals on the Greek Island of Crete from 2010 to 2023 (in 1,000s)

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Number of international air arrivals on the Ionian Islands in Greece from 2010 to 2023, by island (in 1,000s)

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Leading inbound tourist markets in the Ionian Islands in Greece from 2019 to 2023 (in 1,000 visits)

Domestic tourism

• Premium Statistic Total number of domestic trips in Greece 2015-2021
• Premium Statistic Number of domestic trips in Greece 2015-2021, by type
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Total number of domestic trips in Greece 2015-2021

Total number of domestic trips in Greece from 2015 to 2021 (in 1,000s)

Number of domestic trips in Greece 2015-2021, by type

Number of domestic trips in Greece from 2015 to 2021, by type (in 1,000s)

Number of domestic overnight trips in Greece 2015-2021, by purpose

Number of domestic overnight trips in Greece from 2015 to 2021, by purpose (in 1,000s)

Number of domestic overnight trips in Greece 2015-2021, by transport

Number of overnight domestic trips in Greece from 2015 to 2021, by mode of transport (in 1,000s)

Domestic tourism spending in Greece 2019-2022

Domestic tourism expenditure in Greece in 2019 and 2022 (in billion euros)

Outbound tourism

• Premium Statistic Number of outbound tourists from Greece 2005-2023
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Value of international travel payments by residents of Greece from 2016 to 2023, by country of destination (in million euros)

Accommodation

• Basic Statistic Number of tourist accommodation establishments in Greece 2013-2022
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Number of tourist accommodation establishments in Greece 2013-2022

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Number of overnight stays spent at travel accommodation establishments in Greece from 2013 to 2022 (in millions)

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Number of travel accommodation establishments in Greece in 2022, by type

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Number of hotels and similar accommodation establishments in Greece from 2013 to 2022

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Is Greece the latest country facing overtourism?

Jun 7, 2018 • 2 min read

From ancient Athens to sun-soaked Santorini , Greece is on many travellers’ list of dream destinations. But the country’s popularity has potentially placed it on the brink of an overtourism problem, as it is set to hit record-tourist numbers in 2018.

The country’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has said that the country is expecting 32 million international tourists this year, the highest it has been. The comments were made at a meeting of the Greek Tourism Confederation, where Tsipras noted that visitor numbers are up 12.8% from last year, according to the Greek City Times . Even though Greece is known for its timeless appeal, it has just become one of the fastest growing European tourist destinations. It’s an important industry and economic stimulator in a country that has been hit with financial struggles in recent years, but it could mean that tourists and locals are left clamouring for a bit more space.

Already certain areas have had to take measures to limit the number of tourists, particularly islands where tourists descend from cruise ships in high numbers. In 2018, Santorini has begun limiting cruise ship visitors to 8000 each day, down from 12,000 in previous years. The island has also tried to spread the ship arrivals throughout the day to ease the pressure on locals, the infrastructure, and to better facilitate a good experience for visitors.

The impact of tourists on local communities has been springing up around the world, particularly in fellow European spots like Barcelona , Venice and Amsterdam . According to the Telegraph , the Greek National Tourism Organization notes that the influx of passengers isn’t just expanding in the summer and that the other seasons are also getting more popular. It's something to consider when planning a trip to any popular destination, as shoulder-season travel is one way that many places are hoping to spread out the masses of tourists.

But there are plenty of ways for those eager to explore the country’s many wonders to get away from the crowds, like skipping Santorini to explore a lesser-known island in the Cyclades , or skip the islands and explore the country’s north , or even get off the beaten track in Athens .

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10 things I wish tourists knew before visiting Greece, from a local

• I'm from Athens, and I've seen plenty of tourists make mistakes while traveling to Greece .
• Pace yourself if you're planning on staying out at the bars and clubs all night.
• It's worth it to do some research on smaller islands and local cuisine before your trip.

Thanks to its ancient ruins, picturesque beaches, and incredible food, Greece is one of the top tourist destinations. In 2023, over 32 million people visited.

I was born in Athens and currently split my years living between the US and Greece , so I've spent plenty of time in the beautiful European country.

Here are 10 things I think tourists should know before visiting.

There’s so much more to see in Greece than the popular islands.

It seems like everyone visits Mykonos, Santorini, and maybe Paros, but Greece has over 220 inhabitable islands. Plus, most of them are more budget-friendly than the popular spots.

I recommend looking into places like Kimolos, Astypalaia, Paxoi (also known as Paxos and Paxi), or Folegandros.

The Greek mainland is also beautiful. There's a lot to see there, from UNESCO sites at Delphi and Meteora and the turquoise waters of the Peloponnese to the stunning mountains and villages of Epirus.

Athens is more than the Acropolis.

Athens has great nightlife , restaurants, museums, and cool neighborhoods like Plaka, Exarcheia, Psyrri, and Pangrati.

Tourists who just swing by to check the Acropolis off their list are missing out. I've always found it to be one of the liveliest cities in the world.

You don’t need to tip 20%.

Greek servers generally rely on hourly wages, so there isn't the same tipping culture as the US .

I normally just round up the bill or leave a couple of Euros on the table as a tip — unless I had exceptional service or dined at a more formal (and tourist-oriented) restaurant.

Pace yourself when drinking alcohol.

A lot of travelers take advantage of Greece's lax attitude toward alcohol restrictions. Coupled with the fact that Greek bars and clubs close pretty late (like 4 a.m. late), some tourists get sloppy.

Locals usually intersperse drinks with food and water so they can last the whole night, and I recommend tourists do the same.

Slow down and take Sundays off.

Greeks have a pretty relaxed relationship with time — people often arrive late and stores may open half an hour after they said they would.

Service in Greece can seem slow to people from more fast-paced places, especially on the quieter islands . A lot of stores and supermarkets are also closed on Sundays, even in Athens.

I know this can be annoying at times, but I recommend just enjoying the slower pace of life.

Don’t try to visit too many islands on one trip.

So many people ask me if they can fit four or five islands into a seven-day trip, and I never recommend it. Take your time and enjoy each destination for at least a couple of days.

Half the joy of the Greek islands is getting to destress. If you're hopping from ferry to ferry and running around to cover the highlights, you'll miss out on the best parts of the country.

Be sensitive about natural disasters.

I never thought I'd have to say this, but I have seen multiple tourists in the last few years posting about how "pretty" the skies or sunsets are thanks to the glow from raging wildfires .

At a time when a lot of Greek people are wondering if their houses are still standing or their loved ones have gotten to safety, it's a pretty insensitive thing to do.

Don't skip out on experiencing a traditional taverna.

Athens and other popular Greek destinations now have a lot of upscale restaurants with cuisines from all over the world. But make sure to eat in a traditional taverna at least once.

A taverna is a casual restaurant with family-style dining. Diners can spend hours in them chatting with friends while sharing food paired with some great wine or ouzo (a Greek aperitif).

Greek food is more than just gyros.

Well-known dishes like gyros and souvlaki are truly delicious, but Greek cuisine is so much more than that.

For example, a lot of Greeks start their day with a tiropita (cheese pie) and freddo coffee. Each region also has local specialties that I recommend inquiring about.

In tavernas, popular menu items include calamari, octopus, all kinds of fish, grilled and fried cheeses (like saganaki and halloumi), and side dishes like fava.

Learn a few local words.

Most younger Greek people understand English, but you may run into problems communicating with older people — especially in more rural areas.

Even if a local person can understand you, I think it's nice to learn a few simple words and phrases like "good morning," "thank you," and "how are you?"

It's nice when tourists make a little bit of an effort.

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Greece's tourism problem

Poor export diversity leaves the country too dependent on revenue from visitors.

Greece today kick started a tourist season that just a few months ago looked like a write-off.

The government’s determination to salvage what it can from the summer is a gamble with its citizens’ health and its own reputation for handling the coronavirus crisis well. Such is the slight air of desperation to attract visitors that the government’s message has at times come across as confused about who can come and when, as it simultaneously tries to limit exposure to the worst-affected countries.

Yet given just how much the economy relies on tourism, the government’s willingness to roll the dice is understandable. The European Commission forecasts Greece’s economy will contract the most this year of any country in the European Union. Whole regions, particularly on the islands, depend on tourists for their year-round income.

On a day when some international flights resume and seasonal hotels open, it’s worth taking a step back and putting the government’s prioritisation of tourism in its proper financial context.

Despite the focus a decade ago on Greece’s huge budget deficit, the eurozone crisis was nevertheless primarily a balance of payments crisis. Greece’s free fall stopped and the economy stabilised when exports were brought into line with imports.

The chart below, compares GDP to exports divided by Greece’s import propensity, following Roy Harrod’s foreign trade multiplier . It shows how even the crisis of 2015 — when the white-knuckle ride following Syriza’s election led to forecasts for a double-digit recession — could barely shake the economy from its stable trajectory after the two lines converged.

What that story doesn’t show is just how much of the heavy lifting a massive boom in tourism did for Greece’s external adjustment.

Tourism revenue almost doubled after 2010, the year of the first bailout program, setting new records in six of the last seven years. The 18 billion euros brought in from international visitors last year represented a quarter of all Greek exports of goods and services. That ratio rises to a whopping 39 percent if you exclude two components with more questionable direct impact on Greece’s economy — oil (reexported refined petroleum products) and transport (Greek shipping’s outsize role in moving goods around the world).

So while it’s a truism that more visitors is good for the Greek economy, the problem is the poor diversification of the export sector, combined with a fear of what can happen when Greece runs a current account deficit.

Of course, countries can continue running current account deficits for as long as the rest of the world is willing finance them. But Greece is not a financial superpower with unlimited demand for its assets.

Looking for the positives, Greece’s inclusion in the European Central Bank’s pandemic quantitative easing program is a game changer in the short to medium term and will provide much of the balance of payments support the country needs. And if the European Commission’s recovery fund plan comes to pass, the fiscal stimulus it should provide Greece will be ample, without adding to the country’s debt burden.

But that particular chicken is yet to hatch. When EU leaders hold a videoconference meeting this week, the danger is that the only way to get the package past hawkish governments like the Netherlands will be by making assistance conditional on “structural reforms” that have become deeply toxic in southern European countries. 

Even if Friday’s meeting delivers a positive result for Greece, how long will it be before we see a backlash from fiscal hawks reviving their cries that the EU shouldn’t become a transfer union? These voices are currently muted as the economic shock phase of the pandemic remains acute. But in 2009, too, the voices in the ascendency were those calling for Keynesian fiscal stimulus in response to the global financial crisis.

It’s uncomfortable watching the government using the low spread of coronavirus in Greece as a selling point to attract visitors, many of whom will inevitably introduce the virus with them. But with uncertainty still hanging over whether the EU will actually rise to the economic challenge, it’s forgivable that the government hopes Greece’s export champion can keep its external balances in check.

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