The president of the Thira municipal community in Santorini, Panagiotis Kavallaris, posted on social media urging residents to limit their movements due to the huge surge in tourist traffic to the island
A beautiful Greek island has been overwhelmed by thousands of tourists descending on a single day.
Earlier this week Panagiotis Kavallaris, the president of the Thira municipal community in Santorini, urged locals not to go outdoors in a now deleted social media post, a local Greek publication reported. Mr Kavallaris reportedly warned residents of the island that it had become overrun by a massive influx of tourists coming off cruise ships.
On Tuesday alone, 11,000 cruise passengers descended on the island. His post sparked widespread attention and backlash, with critics arguing that residents were being denied the benefits of tourism. The post was later removed, according to Greek publication Kathimerini.
Cruisecritic, a Tripadvisor company, reports that up to seven cruise ships can dock simultaneously on the island, potentially bringing over 14,000 passengers if at full capacity. One person compared the experience of navigating the narrow lanes of Oia village in Santorini to Dante’s Circles of Hell, with “woodcut of Dante’s Circles of Hell with the condemned souls shoulder to shoulder as they funnel down to the bottom”.
Have you visited Santorini? Did you find it too busy? Email [email protected]
Following the chaos, a meeting was held on Tuesday involving senior officials from various ministries, the mayor of Thira, the governor of the South Aegean region, and MPs from the Cyclades. The conversation focused on the need to restrict the number of cruise ships to the island to stop the village becoming overwhelmed.
Santorini’s mayor, Nikos Zorzos, stated that the daily number of cruise passengers should not exceed 8,000, reports the Express. Mr Zorzos told Kathimerini: “Starting in 2025, we will reinstate this cap to preserve our island as a unique destination.”
While it’s not feasible to set limits this year due to the advanced planning of cruise trips, the municipal authority has managed to reduce the number of peak days – where visitors exceeded 10,000 to 11,000 – from 63 in 2023 to just 48 this year, he added.
Learn more
Fancy earning money when you book a holiday? Thanks to Quidco, you can. After signing up for free, Quidco gives you a chunk of money back every time you spend. If your first purchase is within 30 days of signing up and is £5 or more, you’ll receive cashback on that purchase and a £15 bonus.
Mr Zorzos called for additional measures, including the construction of a new port, improvements to energy infrastructure and urban planning, and better regulation of hotels and Airbnbs. The issue of the volume of cruise ships reaching Santorini, among other Greek islands, was also addressed by the country’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who last month told Bloomberg he was planning restrictions.
Earlier this month, UK tourists criticised “Europe’s most beautiful island”, arguing it had been ruined by over-tourism, particularly “the knockoffs and the Americans and the selfie-stick flailers”. One tourist said: “No amount of sunsets or white walls or blue domes will ever make Santorini worth the money”.
A seasoned visitor, who had visited Santorini in the early 1980s, described it as “unspoilt” and a “true Greek experience”. “Sadly all this is long gone. Now it is a tourist trap,” they continued. “Today cruise liners dump thousands onto the island every day… all ripe for scamming,” they added.
