Nowhere in the EU is hypertourism as intense as in the Greek islands of the South Aegean,” wrote the tagesschau, citing Eurostat figures published by the German Federal Statistical Office.
In the place where there are islands like Santorini and the Mykonos recorded in 2022 average 110 nights per resident – no other region can come close to that ratio. In the Ionian Islands, such as Corfu, the corresponding number is 81 nights per inhabitant, while on the Croatian coast of the Adriatic 66. In comparison, in the region of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the region of Germany with the highest tourism, only 18 overnight stays per inhabitant were recorded.
Of course, as the German website says, “in absolute numbers, the region of the Canary Islands of Spain comes first, where 89.3 million overnight stays are recorded – on average, about 245,000 people spend the night on one of the islands every day”.
According to Eurostat data “for 2022 and among the EU states, Greece is the country where the accommodation sector has the largest share of gross added value with 7.1%. Followed by Croatia, Portugal and Spain”. The corresponding percentage for Germany is set at 1.4%, which is well below the EU-wide average of 2.5%.
As ZEIT Online points out about hypertourism, “despite the importance of tourism for the economy, there are many vacation spots throughout Europe that are experiencing the effects of mass tourism. Especially in the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands, demonstrations have recently taken place among local residents, who are concerned, among other things, about the increase in prices in the housing market.