Holiday warning as Greece told it must change its tourism model

Greece has been put under pressure to reimagine a tourism model that climate change is making increasingly untenable.

With its turquoise waters and reliable sunshine, the country has long been a popular holiday destination, attracting nearly 33 million visitors last year and generating 28.5 billion euros in revenue.

This year’s total visitor numbers are expected to rise further, as global tourism sets new records from pre-pandemic levels, but the surge in holidaymakers could undermine the economic mainstay in the near future.

Anger over “overtourism“ has even sparked protests in recent years on the beaches of the Cyclades, a collection of Aegean islands.

“People in Greece are getting more concerned that the (Cycladic islands) are changing very rapidly and, in a few years, what is special is going to be lost,” said Dimitris Vayanos, an economist at the London School of Economics.

Greece is not alone. Residents in other popular European destinations say visitors are harming the environment and local economies, particularly as short-term rentals from home-stay websites like Airbnb drive up housing costs and price people out of their towns and cities.

But Greece is among Europe’s hardest-hit countries by global warming, and rising sea levels, scorching heatwaves, erratic rainfall and frequent wildfires are changing the landscape.

Tourism is placing an extra burden on scarce water resources and threatening fragile coastal environments, leading to calls from local authorities and the national ombudsman to regulate construction, restrict tourist flows and invest in water management and infrastructure.

The government has to balance mitigating these threats against protecting critical tourism earnings. Tourism contributes between 62.8 billion euros and 75.6 billion euros to the Greek economy, roughly a third of gross domestic product annually, according to the Hellenic Tourism Business Association (INSETE).

A law in July updated regulations for tourism agencies, guides and rentals that Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni has said will make the country a “global tourism power” part of “critically important” efforts to safeguard the industry and…