A brand new examine has revealed Greece to be some of the overexposed locations in Europe to tourism, significantly the extremely standard islands of Santorini and Mykonos within the Aegean Sea.
The primary “Overtourism Index”, carried out by the sustainable journey platform Evaneos and the consultancy Roland Berger, analyses 70 of essentially the most frequented vacation locations on the earth and seeks to guage their degree of publicity to guests.
Its findings revealed that Greece is likely one of the most overexposed to tourism and, because of this, the platform has determined to remove Mykonos and Santorini from its provide from 2025 till additional discover, in response to Europa Press.
Regardless of being among the many best-selling journeys on the platform, the choice to take away the islands from {the catalogue} in the course of the summer season was taken at the side of native Evaneos businesses. It comes as an enormous blow to the tons of of 1000’s of UK vacationers who frequent the gorgeous Greek archipelago yearly.
These businesses know the stress that overtourism places on ecosystems and scarce sources together with water between July and August first hand.
With Instagram-perfect sunsets, Santorini is named some of the lovely locations on the earth. Yearly, round 3.4 million vacationers descend on the 28-square-mile island, all combating for the perfect spots for images of the enduring view.
In consequence, nevertheless, the island has been the sufferer of crowds, congested websites, grime, noise, excessive costs, the degradation of nature, air pollution and new building. In June, 17,000 vacationers descended on the island by way of cruise ship in someday, with residents requested to restrict their actions in an unprecedented announcement made by a councillor of the island in a now deleted Fb submit.
“Armed with selfie sticks and telephones, the vacationers flood into Santorini from all over the place,” reviews Reuters. “On dinghies from large ocean liners, on coaches that zigzag up the steep hillsides, atop donkeys that clip-clop alongside the slim cobbled streets.”
The removing of the islands seeks to raised stability vacationer flows and to distribute stays to the months of June and September.
“The aim of our mannequin is to supply another based mostly on sustainable tourism and an genuine expertise. Sadly, visiting Mykonos and Santorini in the course of the summer season doesn’t meet any of those standards,” stresses Aurélie Sandler, co-CEO of Evaneos.
The platform has drawn up an motion plan along with native businesses within the area, which incorporates the promotion of different itineraries such because the Peloponnese or mainland Greece.
“Removed from pointing the finger at these locations, the purpose of this technique is to encourage and help native brokers in order that they will provide a extra constructive expertise for travellers,” provides Sandler.
The examine additionally revealed that Spain leads the Overtourism Index with a rating of three.6 out of 5, along with Italy, France and Portugal. Whereas the most important European locations can accommodate a excessive density of vacationers, they endure a very excessive move in the course of the summer season in a big a part of their territory: as much as 43 % of customer arrivals are concentrated within the third quarter – June, July and August – in these nations.
“These locations want, initially, to implement measures to de-seasonalise arrivals, selling these locations in spring or autumn, which might permit a greater distribution of vacationers over time.
“This requires elevating consciousness amongst travellers about the issue of overtourism and for tourism gamers to behave with presents which can be extra delicate to seasonal stress,” mentioned Sandler.