Skyros island’s native council has unanimously rejected a proposed city improvement plan that features increasing its tourism infrastructure with marinas and cruise ship docks.
The island’s residents voiced robust opposition, selecting to take care of their conventional life-style over large-scale tourism.
The proposals included organised areas for resorts and extreme limitations on free-range livestock grazing, which presently covers 80 p.c of the island.
Mayor Kyriakos Antonopoulos emphasised that guests come to the Greek island for its pure magnificence and small, family-run lodging, not massive resorts.
“We’d fairly keep ‘undeveloped’ than lose what makes Skyros distinctive,” he informed native information outlet ekathimerini.
The council’s choice displays a broader sentiment on the island to guard its atmosphere and resist heavy tourism, a problem that has turn into most prevalent on the islands of Santorini and Mykonos, that are bowing underneath the stress of thousands and thousands of vacationers a 12 months.
Whereas the controversy over improvement plans are set to proceed, the locals stay dedicated to preserving the island’s character.
Skyros is the southernmost island of the Sporades within the Aegean Sea. It is usually the most important of the archipelago and has a inhabitants of round 3,000 as of 2021. One account associates its identify with “skyron” or “skiron”, which means “stone particles” – the island has a repute for its ornamental stone.
It’s usually described as certainly one of Greece’s greatest “hidden gems”, providing picturesque spots, distinctive shoreline and a non-touristy environment.
In keeping with Greek mythology, Theseus – the divine hero well-known for slaying the Minotaur – died on the island when the native king threw him from a cliff. It is usually well-known in myths because the place from the place Achilles set sail for Troy after Odysseus found him within the court docket of Lycomedes.
Skyros has a hot-summer Mediterranean local weather, with delicate, wet winters and heat, dry summers. The north of the island is roofed by forest, whereas the south is dominated by the best mountain known as Kochila, which is naked and rocky.
The principle port, on the west coast, is Linaria, by which the island will be visited by ferries from the port of Kymi in Euboea (Evia). Skyros additionally has a small airport that’s linked to Athens and Thessaloniki and you may fly from Heathrow or Luton.
It is a far cry from the kind of tourism that now dominates the island of Santorini. For the 25,000 or so everlasting residents, the as soon as idyllic island of quaint villages and pristine seashores has been ruined by mass tourism. In truth, the Greek authorities has proposed laws that will impose strict constructing restrictions on the island to aim to curb the impression of tourism.
This summer season, as many as 17,000 holidaymakers a day transverse by the slim streets of Fira, Santorini’s iconic cliff-top city having arrived on cruise ships and day-trip ferries.
“There have been instances when the stress is insufferable,” stated Zorzos, talking of events when 5 cruise ships have arrived on the similar time.