A Santorini councillor has told residents to stay at home as a record number of tourists descended on the Greek island.
Councillor Panos Kavallaris urged residents in a since-deleted Facebook post to stay at home and avoid the masses of tourists authorities expected to arrive on the island during the peak holiday season over the last few days.
‘Another difficult day for our city and island is ahead with the arrival of 17,000 visitors from cruise ships. We ask for your attention: limit your movements as much as possible,’ Kavallaris said, but the post quickly caused outrage among locals.
Residents criticised the councillor’s request, with one commenting on social media: ‘[He] officially asks locals to lock themselves at home, so that tourists can wander around free. Marvelous.’
LIFO, a popular Greek newspaper, said that while Kavallaris’ announcement was made ‘with the best intentions’, it was clear that the situation in Santorini in regards to the amount of tourists coming to the island was getting out of control.
Shocking images from the picturesque island this week show masses of tourists queuing on narrow walkways along white buildings with the famous sea-blue domes for the best holiday shots.
Shocking images from the picturesque island this week show masses of tourists queuing on narrow walkways along white buildings with the famous sea-blue domes for the best holiday shots.
Hundreds of tourists perch on the steep hills in Santorini that watch and photograph the famed sunset on July 25, 2024
Tourists leave after viewing Santorini’s famed sunset from the Castle of Oia, on Santorini, Greece, earlier this week
Hundreds of tourists regularly gather at the village of Oia, Santorini, to watch the sunset, like above on July 20
Tourists wait for the sunset in the village of Oia on the Greek island of Santorini on July 20, 2024
The queue to reach the viewing spot in the clifftop village of Oia can now take more than 20 minutes.
Santorini is a key stopover of the Greek cruise experience. But with parts of the island nearing saturation, officials are considering restrictions.
Of the record 32.7 million people who visited Greece last year, around 3.4 million, or one in 10, went to the island of just 15,500 residents.
‘We need to set limits if we don’t want to sink under overtourism,’ Santorini mayor Nikos Zorzos said.
‘There must not be a single extra bed… whether in the large hotels or Airbnb rentals.’
As the sun set behind the horizon in Oia, thousands raised their phones to the sky to capture the moment, followed by scattered applause.
For canny entrepreneurs, the Cycladic island’s famous sunset can be a cash cow.
One company advertised more than 50 ‘flying dresses’, which have long flowing trains, for up to 370 euros (£312), on posters around Oia for anyone who wishes to ‘feel like a Greek goddess’ or spruce up selfies.
But elsewhere in Oia’s narrow streets, residents have put up signs urging visitors to respect their home.
‘RESPECT… It’s your holiday… but it’s our home,’ read a purple sign from the Save Oia group.
Another local described Santorini as the ‘Hawaii of Europe’, with a third adding on social media: ‘I’m so glad I’m not on the island right now.’
Shaped by a volcanic eruption 3,600 years ago, Santorini’s landscape is ‘unique’, the mayor said, and ‘should not be harmed by new infrastructure’.
Around a fifth of the island is currently occupied by buildings.
As the sun set behind the horizon in Oia (pictured above on July 19), thousands raised their phones to the sky to capture the moment, followed by scattered applause
The sunset in the village of Oia (above) is a popular photo subject among holidaymakers
Scores of tourists disembark from a boat at the port of the Greek island of Santorini on July 20, 2024
Tourists take pictures of donkeys being guided by a local man, in the village of Oia, on Santorini, Greece, July 25, 2024
Tourists walk through a street of the village of Fira on the Greek island of Santorini on July 19, 2024
Of the record 32.7 million people who visited Greece last year, around 3.4 million, or one in 10, went to the island of just 15,500 residents (pictured: tourists in Santorini on July 20, 2024)
At the edge of the cliff, a myriad of swimming pools and jacuzzis highlight Santorini is also a pricey destination.
In 2023, 800 cruise ships brought some 1.3 million passengers, according to the Hellenic Ports Association.
Cruisecritic, a Tripadvisor company, says that up to seven cruise ships can dock simultaneously on the island, which means that they could bring over 14,000 passengers if at full capacity.
Cruise ships ‘do a lot of harm to the island’, said Chantal Metakides, a Belgian resident of Santorini for 26 years.
‘When there are eight or nine ships pumping out smoke, you can see the layer of pollution in the caldera,’ she said.
In June, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis floated the possibility of capping cruise ship arrivals to Greece’s most popular islands.
‘I think we’ll do it next year,’ he told Bloomberg, noting that Santorini and tourist magnet Mykonos ‘are clearly suffering’.
‘There are people spending a lot of money to be on Santorini and they don’t want the island to be swamped,’ said the pro-business conservative leader, who was re-elected to a second four-year term last year.
In an interview, Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni echoed this sentiment and said: ‘We must set quotas because it’s impossible for an island such as Santorini… to have five cruise ships arriving at the same time.’
Local officials have set a limit of 8,000 cruise boat passengers per day from next year. But not all local operators agree.
Antonis Pagonis, head of Santorini’s hoteliers association, believes better visitor flow management is part of the solution.
‘It is not possible to have (on) a Monday, for example, 20 to 25,000 guests from the cruise ships, and the next day zero,’ he said.
Thousands of tourists walk through the narrow alleyways in Santorini every single day, like above on July 20
Santorini is a key stopover of the Greek cruise experience. But with parts of the island nearing saturation, officials are considering restrictions (pictured: tourists watching the famed sunset in Santorini)
Tourists queue as they wait to get the cable car from the old port of Fira to the village of Fira on the Greek island of Santorini on July 20, 2024
Tourists walk through a narrow street in the village of Fira on the Greek island of Santorini at sunset on July 19, 2024
Local officials have set a limit of 8,000 cruise boat passengers per day from next year
Like other popular tourist destinations, the Cycladic island perched on a volcano is approaching over-saturation, and now wants to restrict the number of cruise ship
Pagonis also argued that most of the congestion only affects parts of the island like the capital, Fira.
In the south of the island, the volcanic sand beaches are less crowded, even though it is high season in July.
The modern tourism industry has also changed visitor behaviour.
‘I listened (to) people making a FaceTime call with the family, saying “I’m in Turkey”,’ smiled tourist guide Kostas Sakavaras.
‘They think that the church over there is a mosque because yesterday they were in Turkey.’
The veteran guide said the average tourist coming to the island has changed.
‘Instagram has defined the way people choose the places to visit,’ he said, explaining everybody wants the perfect Instagram photo to confirm their expectations.