Greek Prime Minister Dismisses Overtourism Fears, Pushes for Off-Peak Growth

Most destinations in Greece need more tourists, not fewer, said the country’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, on Tuesday at a conference titled “Reimagine Tourism in Greece,” hosted by the newspaper Kathimerini.

“Greece does not have an overtourism problem,” said Mitsotakis, based on an internet translation of the transcript in Greek. “It faces the challenge of concentrated tourist activity in specific destinations for a few months of the year.” 

Mitsotakis said his priority is “boosting revenue” and “breaking revenue records” and is focused on “tourism’s overall impact on the country’s development.”

Between January and July, Greece received 14.4 international air passengers, up 8.2% year over year. Tourism spending reached around $7.5 billion (6.9 billion euros) in the first half of this year, up 12.2%, reported Greek City Times.

Mitsotakis noted infrastructure challenges in some of Greece’s island destinations.

“In certain Aegean islands, the infrastructure is being stretched during peak months. With better infrastructure, theoretically, we could accommodate more tourists,” he said.

“Forced intervention” in the tourism sector is necessary when overcrowding ruins the visitor experience and strains local infrastructure and resources, he said.

Last month, the prime minister announced plans to charge cruise passengers fees to raise revenue for local infrastructure improvements and put limits on cruise ship arrivals that stop at the Aegean islands of Mykonos and Santorini. 

The new measures aimed to encourage cruises to stop in other destinations and expand the tourist peak season beyond July and August.

The prime minister also said he doesn’t expect the protests that have broken out in Barcelona to happen in Greece because locals understand the value of tourism, and visitor traffic doesn’t feel overwhelming.

In fact, many destinations in Greece such as Athens, Thessaloniki, and Crete are far from “saturation” and still have a lot of “untapped potential” for tourism, Mitsotakis said.