2023 was a milestone for Greek hypertourism. It was the year the sector recorded over 32 million foreign tourist arrivals and revenues of €20.5 billion, breaking all previous records.
For this year, everyone expects a new increase in the main tourism figures and new records. In this context, other local communities are celebrating, others are depressed because they are not participating in the wild party… and sometimes voices are also raised to worry about overtourism, the exhaustion of the reception capacity of destinations and the inadequacy of infrastructure.
Hypertourism and problems
In a detailed report on the problems faced by southern European countries with overtourism, Handelsblatt also mentions the case of Greece
“There is a housing shortage in Greece. According to a study by the Piraeus Bank, more than 210,000 homes are missing. At the same time, about 940,000 homes were rented out last year for a short period.” To meet this condition, “the government now allows the rental of homes for up to 90 nights per year in cities and up to 60 nights for homes located on islands with up to 10,000 inhabitants. In addition, income from short-term rentals will be taxed more.
Greece’s real problem, however, is not Airbnbs and short-term rentals, but cruise ships, which drop off too many passengers and overwhelm the islands’ small ports.
(…) Santorini, for example, welcomed 800 cruise ships last year. This year, 815 people are expected. However, the island’s infrastructure is not designed for such a thing,” which leads, for example, to a dramatic increase in water and electricity consumption. “If the state does not definitively stop the construction of new hotels, Santorini will be destroyed,” Nikos Zorzos, the mayor of Thira, told HB.