Lured by beautiful beaches, world-class archaeological sites and comforting cuisine, around 33 million people visited Greece in 2023, some five million more than in 2022. According to the Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO), 2023 was also a milestone year for cruising in Greece , with seven million passengers visiting the country on board 5,230 cruise ships, compared to 4.38 million passengers and 4,614 cruise ships in 2022.
However, in an unprecedented move last month, the Greek Ombudsman, an independent organization established to combat mismanagement and guarantee the effective exercise of civil rights, stressed the need to regulate tourism in a sustainable manner, saying that Greece “ should not exhaust its potential, thereby making our tourist destinations more unattractive over time.”
In response to last week’s statement, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis pledged to put a cap on cruise tourism – a sector some say is being used as a scapegoat for wider issues of overtourism – by limiting the number of available berths for ships through a bidding process. which ships would have to use to secure the slots. Unlike Amsterdam, Venice and Barcelona, where restrictions have already been introduced, Greece has not yet introduced a daily limit on cruises to the country’s most popular destinations, but there are fears that limiting the number of ships could have a negative impact could have on the tourism industry. which accounts for a quarter of the Greek economy.
With around 1.5 million passengers in 2023, Piraeus, the port of Athens, tops the list of popular cruise destinations in Greece, followed by Santorini with 1.3 million and Mykonos with almost 1.2 million.
In Santorini, where overtourism has angered many locals, Kathrin of travel company Santorini Experts disagrees that cruises are responsible for the island’s chronic overcrowding. She says: “I really don’t like the term ‘overtourism’ – it feels like we only call it that because of the chaos that comes from having lots of cruise ships visiting at the same time. If we just had another port where cruise passengers didn’t have to go through the whole tender and cable car process, I think half of our problems would go away.”
However, Santorini-based hotelier Daniel Kerzner disagrees. “The influx of large cruise ships is straining infrastructure, clogging and degrading the experience for all travelers and providing little value to the island… the current move to limit cruises is essential to protect our island paradise,” says Santorini’s owner Sky, a luxury hotel in the mountain village of Pyrgos, far from the volcanic caldera where most hotels are located.
Entrepreneurs on the island are also angry about the lack of income that cruise tourism brings. “They have everything on board – even souvenir shops – so they come here and just walk around and then go back to their boat without buying anything,” said Maria Dimitirou, owner of a gift shop in Oia.
Dr. Lauren Siegel, senior lecturer in tourism and events management at the University of Greenwich, agrees: “Cruises bring a huge amount of passengers to a port for a limited period of time. It often doesn’t last long enough to gain meaningful experience somewhere or make an impactful economic contribution. I understand the convenience and convenience for those who want to take cruises, but this model only works if the host community also benefits. Unfortunately, many of the ports of call in Greece have become tourist enclaves, where the locals have nothing left.”
Although Piraeus, Santorini, Mykonos and Rhodes are the main cruise destinations in Greece today, a growing number of passengers are choosing to explore further afield.
CEO of Greek company Variety Cruises, Filippos Venetopoulos, says that by using smaller ships that carry fewer passengers, his company can be more versatile and offer a different – and much more authentic – experience. “Variety Cruises specializes in small boat cruises, offering our customers the chance to enjoy a range of different island stops in the Cyclades and in the Ionian and Aegean Seas. We value the environment and do our utmost to limit our impact, while investing in projects that help minimize overtourism,” he says.
However, hitherto less visited islands, including Serifos and Lefkada, are complaining about the pressure on resource sustainability caused by a sudden increase in visitors since the Covid pandemic.
Pollution is also a problem on islands visited by a large number of cruise ships. Recent tests by the Hellenic Ornithological Society (HOS) and air pollution experts from the German Nature and Biodiversity Union (NABU) have revealed spikes in ultrafine particulate matter, carcinogenic compounds and soot in the air near Greek islands that are popular cruise destinations. “The real problem is not the total number of tourists. The problem is that most tourists are concentrated in the typical tourist areas that we all know. There needs to be a plan to promote other areas in Greece,” said Mike Kapsilis, who works for a tour company on Chios, an island in the North Aegean rarely visited by the larger cruise ships.
Dimitris Stavrakopoulos, director of Hermoupolis Heritage, a non-profit organization based on the Cyclades island of Syros, which aims to protect the island’s cultural heritage, believes that the problem lies in the way cruise tourism is managed. “Cruise tourism would have great potential here in Syros, as long as the visitor is encouraged to sample the local culture. The ultimate goal of the island’s tourism development should be based on the philosophy of preserving the cultural heritage and thus transforming it into a tourism product that will provide livelihood to the local community,” he said.
In a recent report, the GNTO, which estimates that Greece will welcome more than 36 million passengers by 2026, says that “sustainability and social responsibility are crucial for the global cruise industry.”
The British expert Dr. Lauren Siegel agrees that there could be a positive future for cruise tourism if it is properly regulated. “While research has shown that cruise passengers are less motivated by cultural curiosity in favor of budget or convenience, I do think cruise tourism can be more sustainable if there are limitations on the size and scope of ships,” she says.