“Nowhere else in the EU is hypertourism as intense as in the Greek islands of the southern Aegean Sea,” writes the tagesschau, citing Eurostat figures published by the German Federal Statistical Office.
In the island area as the Santorini and the Mykonos were recorded in 2022 average 110 nights per inhabitant – no other region could come close to such a ratio. In the Ionian Islands, as in Corfu, the corresponding number was 81 nights per inhabitant, while on the Croatian coast of the Adriatic 66. In comparison, in the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania region, Germany’s most touristy region, only 18 overnight stays per inhabitant were recorded.
Of course, as the German site notes: “in absolute figures, the Canary Islands region of Spain takes first place, where 89.3 million overnight stays were recorded – on average, around 245,000 people spent the night on one of the islands every day.
According to Eurostat data “for 2022 and among EU states, Greece was the country in which the accommodation sector held the largest share of gross value added with 7.1%. Followed by Croatia, Portugal and Spain”. The corresponding percentage for Germany is set at 1.4%, which is well below the European average of 2.5%.
As ZEIT Online points out regarding hypertourism, “despite the importance of tourism for the economy, many holiday areas in Europe are suffering the effects of mass tourism. In the Balearics and the Canaries in particular, protests have recently taken place by residents, who are concerned, among other things, about rising prices in the real estate market.