Santorini island under pressure – The impact of overtourism. By PRIME International Corp.

Santorini’s enormous popularity is taking a toll on the things that make it special.

Every visitor to Greece is familiar with the iconic images of Santorini – those blue-domed churches looking out over the caldera sunset view. But what image do you get if you point your camera in the opposite direction? From April to October, the pretty paved pathways decorating the cliff face at Oia, the village famous for its sunsets, is packed with thousands of visitors all whipping out their smartphones to take the exact same picture. “In peak season, it’s busier than Penn Station at rush hour,” says the island’s former mayoral advisor, Lukas Bellonias.

Over the past five years, Santorini has become one of the most popular destinations in the world – overnight stays here have increased by 66 percent. And although it’s made the island into a rare financial success story in a country still struggling with the fallout from its decade-long financial crisis, it’s also taking a toll. A recent report on “overtourism” by the EU’s transport committee warned that the island is failing to manage the increasing numbers, spelling disaster for the local community and the environment, and putting “the future of the destination at risk.”

According to Bellonias, this steep rise in visitors has been driven by social media. “Santorini has a unique geography that people immediately want to photograph,” he explains. “Before, you’d only show vacation photos to your close friends and family. But now, people share them with thousands.” The cobbled streets of Oia have now become a fixture on many an Instagram influencer’s feed. During peak summer months, according to Bellonias, mobile network companies struggle to provide enough coverage for the amount of people taking and uploading images.

Bellonias was part of an administration that tried for years to sound the alarm about the situation, before they were voted out of office in May 2019. “Everything has a capacity,” he explains. “Each island can only accommodate a certain number of people.” In 2018, they introduced an 8000-person daily cap on cruise visitors. But Bellonias tells me that far more action is needed, and the municipality does not have the power to make it happen.

“Look,” he says, opening up Google Earth on his computer. “Twenty or thirty years ago there was a village here and a village there,” he says, pointing to the sprawling mass of buildings now covering most of the island’s west coast. “In five to ten years, it could end up as one big city.” The municipality has no power to stop new buildings going up. That responsibility lies with the Santorini Building Authority, which is controlled by central government. The EU report is highly critical of the Greek government, citing its “lack of adequate and appropriate governance” and its failure to implement planning legislation on Santorini.

“We can’t forecast the results of this but it’s certain the quality of life will decrease,” says Bellonias. “We’ll have problems that we usually only see in cities.” The island is already plagued by traffic jams in the summer months, and Airbnb has pushed up housing prices so much that employers are having to build new accommodation just for their staff.

Source: PRIME International Corp. (Voula, Attica, Greece, 29 July 2024)

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