Packed full of history, dotted with an endless supply of beautiful islands and its incredible weather it is no wonder that Greece is one of the most popular tourist destinations.
Some 33 million people visited Greece in 2023, around five million more than in 2022, according to the Greek National Tourism Organisation (GNTO), which makes it the tenth most visited country in the world.
Last year was also a landmark year for cruising in Greece, with seven million passengers visiting the country aboard 5,230 cruise ships, compared to 4.38 million passengers and 4,614 cruise ships in 2022.
However, the Greek ombudsman last month called for urgent reform warning that the country needs to manage tourism in a more sustainable way and it must not “exhaust its potential”.
Reacting to the statement, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Greece is considering imposing a cap on cruise ships in an attempt to mitigate the damage caused by crowds of tourists.
He said an interview with Bloomberg:“I think we’ll do it next year,” Mitsotakis said, adding that new regulations could either restrict the total number of island berths or introduce a bidding process for slots.
Cruises generated nearly £715 million in revenue in 2023, more than double the figure of the previous year. In total, tourism accounts for a quarter of Greece’s economy, with record numbers of tourists travelling after the end of pandemic restrictions.
In 2023, Santorini welcomed 800 cruise ships, disgorging 1.3 million people, a figure that was 17 percent higher than in 2022. The island has only 15,000 residents. Santorini was closely followed by Mykonos with 749, up 23 percent year on year. However, there are fears that capping the number of ships could have a negative effect on the tourist industry.
But, instead of capping the number of ships, the solution could be as easy as building a second port in Santorini to help manage the tourism flows.
Santorini currently has two ports Athinios and the Old Port but only one operates for passenger ferries; the port of Athinios is located on the southwest side of the island and sees numerous tourist ferries departing from and arriving in Santorini every day, especially in high season.
According to The Telegraph Kathrin of tour company Santorini Experts said: “If we just had a different port that didn’t require cruise ship passengers to go through the whole tendering and cable car process, I believe half of our problems would vanish.”