Greece plans to impose a 20 euro fee on cruise ship visitors arriving on the islands of Santorini and Mykonos during the peak summer season to curb overtourism, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Sunday.
Greece is heavily dependent on tourism, the main driver of the country’s economy, which is still recovering from a decade-long crisis that destroyed a quarter of its output.
But some of its most popular destinations, including Santorini, an idyllic island with quaint villages and pristine beaches and home to 20,000 permanent residents, are at risk of being ruined by mass tourism.
Speaking at a press conference a day after outlining his key economic policies for 2025, Mitsotakis made clear that overtourism is only a problem in a few places.
“Greece does not have a structural overtourism problem … some of its tourist destinations have significant problems during certain weeks or months of the year, which we have to deal with,” he said.
“Cruise shipping has placed a burden on Santorini and Mykonos and that is why we are intervening,” he said in announcing the charges.
Greek tourism revenues are set to reach nearly 20 billion euros in 2023, thanks to the arrival of approximately 31 million tourists.
Protesters in Santorini have demanded a ban on tourism, similar to other popular holiday destinations in Europe, including Venice and Barcelona.
Mitsotakis said a portion of the revenue from the cruise shipping tax would be returned to local communities to be invested in infrastructure.
He said the government also plans to regulate the number of cruise ships arriving at certain locations simultaneously, while rules should also be imposed on islands to protect the environment and tackle water shortages.
Mitsotakis said on Saturday that Greece wants to raise taxes on short-term rentals and ban new licences for such rentals in central Athens in a bid to increase the housing stock for permanent residents.
The government will detail some measures on Monday.
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