Locals forced to camp out in caves as crowds of tourists overwhelm Greek island
Hospitality workers in Santorini have resorted to living in caves because of high levels of tourism on the island, it has been reported.
The Greek Island has a population of 15,000 people but attracts around two million visitors each year, meaning 1,333 tourists come for every full-time local. As positive as visitors may be in pure cash terms, they can make life on the island difficult.
The island's capital Fira is often overwhelmed by crowds of people so dense it can be difficult to move in them, the Telegraph reported during a recent trip. Many of the throng's number have recently disembarked cruise ships which regularly stop in the island.
As locals and shop owners in coastal resorts frequented by the liners have noted for some time, such passengers often do little more than cause crowds. They tend to follow the same recommended routes, flooding certain areas and leaving others desolate.
One Fire shopkeeper told the publication: “Of course we like the money and we want tourism, but these people you see from the cruises are no good for us – they don’t spend money here. They have everything on their ships – even souvenir shops – so they just come to wander around and block our streets.”
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Overtourism has become a big issue in Santorini (LightRocket via Getty Images)On the busiest days 18,000 cruise passengers arrive on the island. Over the particularly buzzing 2019,, 592 ships dropped off around 870,000 passengers onto Santorini. Proposals to cap daily visitor numbers recently stalled.
Another issue is the fact that 15% of the island is now concreted over, which is impacting the aesthetic and has the potential to cause issues with the water table. According to Lukas Belonias, who grew up on the island, things have changed there dramatically.
“In the old times, Santorini was made up of small villages – now you can’t see where one village ends and the other begins. It’s like Las Vegas here – people come for three days to see the sunset, do their photo shoot, eat sushi at their hotel and leave. What have they seen of the local lifestyle or our island’s culture?” he told the Telegraph.
Locals complained that visitors are overcrowding Santorini (LightRocket via Getty Images)Dr Lauren Siegel, senior lecturer in tourism and events at the University of Greenwich, conducted a study into the impact of tourism on the island and found it caused inflation, making goods and services unaffordable for many locals, while bringing money.
As with many sought after places in Europe, house prices are rising, pushing locals out. The rise of Airbnb has made it harder to find a place to stay in Santorini, taxi driver Nikos said. He claimed 600 euros a month for a small flat would be a good price, despite being half of many people's salaries.
Nikos said that some people had become so desperate they'd resorted to camping out on the beach or in caves.
The problem of over-tourism is one which is far from Santorini's alone. During a recent visit to Rhodes to see how the island was recovering following the wildfires, small business owners there told the Mirror of the impact large hotel chains had had.
One particularly frustrated Rhodian Georgina Apolakiatis, who runs the popular Lighthouse Kiotari Restaurant Bar, fears her business won't recover after fires hit the surrounding area. She lost £15,000 of frozen stock when electricity went off.
While the business had been managing up until the fires, Georgina said that the rise of large, all-inclusive hotels on Rhodes had concentrated money into the hands of big firms, and stopped customers from exploring the island and spending cash in the process.
One organisation which is attempting to combat the impacts of over-tourism spearheaded by large corporations is Fairbnb, a European cooperative of holiday let landlords. Those who want to advertise their property on the platform must meet a set of strict criteria, such as not owning multiple properties in certain areas. Half of the fee given to Fairbnb through each sale is invest in local projects.
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"All tourism industry is grown without consideration of sustainability in general. It is very profit driven, it is a high frequency market, the more you sell the better," Fairbnb co-founder Emanuele Dal Carlo told the Mirror.
"It creates this spiral. You hardly hear about a hotel investing in a factory or something else that is not touristic. Tourism is a great resource and activity, but it has a very dark side. When it's too successful, it changes the community."
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