“The whitewashed streets of Santorini will be filled with millions of visitors this summer. But everyone on the Greek island will not be happy to see them”, he wrote in a report about him hypertourism in Greece Bloomberg.
“Tourism is destroying the vineyards”, said wine producer Mattheos Argyros in an interview with the American network. “I am raising a red flag for the island.” His family’s winery, founded in 1903, produces wine from about a quarter of the island’s vineyards and he warns that farm prices have soared in the area as developers clamor for space to build more. holiday accommodation.
Bloomberg on hypertourism and vineyards in Santorini
Grape production in Santorini has fallen by almost 50% in the past 20 years, with an average decrease of 2.7% per year, according to data compiled by the Santorini Winemakers’ Association.
Production, according to the island’s winemakers, is at risk of being reduced to zero in 2041, unless there is some form of intervention. The lack of water has made it difficult to grow grapes, while the tourism industry has lost most of its workers over the years, Mr. Argyros pointed out.
From her balcony in the hilltop village of Pyrgos, Antonia Nousia could see the vines growing all the way to the beach. Now, he said, “only small patches of vineyards remain.”
“You can see people carrying sheets, breakfast supplies and it’s not a residential village,” said A. Nousia, associate professor of urban planning and design at London South Bank University, who lives half a year in island where he spent all his summers growing up. When the tourists disappear during the winter, the locals rely on a small grocery store.
As Bloomberg points out, tourism has hit the gas across Europe after the pandemic, exacerbating supply problems, congested roads and economic imbalances in many popular destinations, such as Santorini.
In some cases authorities are trying to ease pressure with visitor fees, caps and even temporary bans – with limited signs of success as a record-breaking summer begins for tourism.
“It’s been a bad year for Santorini,” the island’s mayor Nikos Zorzos told Bloomberg. The island cannot afford “not one bed more” for accommodation, stressing that this is still the case even though infrastructure has been improved to help the island cope with higher tourist numbers. The municipality cannot ban the construction of new buildings and hotels, so it demands action from the government.
Santorini expects 3.4 million tourists this summer, despite local authorities demanding limits since 2012, Zorzos said.
The position of Kyriakos Mitsotakis
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has acknowledged that the region is facing a “hypertourism” problem, as highlighted by Bloomberg, recalling that in June he announced plans to restrict cruise ships to the most popular islands in the country. “I think we will do it next year”, said K. Mitsotakis in an interview at the time.
The new rules may limit the total number of slots on the island or establish a bidding process for slots. This is the latest proposal to limit day trips by cruise ships.
Cruise ship tourists arrive in Greece
Arrivals increase by 50% by 2023
Mr. George had previously set a cap of 8,000 cruise guests a day, although this was lifted during the pandemic and recently reinstated, so the overall impact on tourist numbers is unclear. . The local authorities of Santorini have also managed to reduce the number of days that each cruise ship can visit the islands to 48 days from 63 for this season – a number that is expected to decrease further next year.
Bloomberg also noted that the Greek government intends to impose restrictions on short-term rentals in congested areas, including many of the top destinations in the Aegean and Ionian Islands. The government has drafted legislation, which is currently in public consultation, that links the value of short-term rentals to the number of hotels available in each area.
The European Commission has recognized the problems of the islands, noting in a 2018 report that visitors bring €1 billion a year to Santorini, while the population is as high as 107.8 tourists for every 100 who are residents. Some of the negative impacts “have lasting consequences for the island and its community,” the report’s authors wrote.