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There is a volcano waiting to erupt in Santorini, but it is not the world-famous caldera.
The dazzling whitewashed houses, blue-domed churches and azure skies and seas of this unique and beautiful Greek island attract around 3.4 million visitors a year, far more than Santorini’s approximately 20,000 permanent residents.
In high season, as many as 17,000 cruise passengers flock to the island on peak days, heading straight for must-see spots like the capital Fira and the town of Oia on its northwestern tip, renowned for its spectacular sunsets. It has even been dubbed the “Instagram Island” for its perfectly saturated, “unfiltered” splendor.
The narrow cobblestone streets and cliffside balconies are filled with vacationers seeking sunset selfies, and locals are disturbed from their daily activities. But come evening, the crowds thin out, and some complain that the island is turning from Times Square into a ghost town.
It’s a volatile mix that has led to growing discontent on this Cyclades island in the Aegean Sea, whose rugged landscape was shaped by a volcanic eruption around 1600 BC.
The number of visitors will be limited from 2025
Santorini Mayor Nikos Zorzos has proposed limiting the number of cruise ship passengers to 8,000 per day. A move supported by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who told Bloomberg the measure would be implemented next year.
Anti-tourism protests have been a political flashpoint in Europe this summer, with demonstrations in Spain, the Netherlands and elsewhere. On Thursday, Venice limited tour groups to 25 people and banned megaphones, after recently declaring its temporary entry fee a success, bringing in about $2.64 million in revenue for the city.
Overtourism has become a buzzword in the travel world in recent years, as popular destinations struggle to balance their need for visitor dollars with the quality of life for their residents and maintaining a desirable and sustainable environment for all.
In Santorini, some say, it’s not just a matter of too many tourists.
“The island is empty”
“There is no such thing as overtourism. What I see is a lack of structures,” Gianluca Chimenti, a local tour operator and Santorini resident for 18 years, tells CNN Travel. While social media is full of images of overcrowding in the island’s hotspots during peak hours, he says the situation is very different the rest of the time.
“The truth is that the island is empty. Right now, it’s like never before, it’s the worst season ever.”
July and August are high season in Santorini, but town centres are deserted after 9pm and restaurants and hotels are far from full, he says. Cruise ship passengers are popular and in high demand, as are long-term visitors who come by boat or plane, but he says locals feel they have to make concessions.
In the mid- to late 20th century, Santorini was still an idyllic island where locals traveled by donkey and grew tomatoes and vines to produce wine. Today, the island’s outdated infrastructure is under severe strain, especially at the main port of Fira.
Unless you want to do a long, steep walk, the cable car is the only option for cruise ship passengers to get from the Old Port to the city centre, Chimenti points out, and “it’s quite normal that there’s a line if the cruise ships are all arriving together.”
However, when the crowds are gone, “the hotels are now more or less at less than 30% of a normal season,” he says, adding that other businesses on the island are taking a similar hit.
“The problem is that social media shows something completely different from reality,” he says. While many tourists will come this year, many others are put off by its reputation as a crowded destination and do not see it as a year-round destination for longer stays.
The need to diversify
The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), a global trade body, announced on August 1 that it had met with Greek Maritime Minister Christos Stylianides to discuss the crisis, including improving and modernizing port infrastructure and services.
Greece’s tourism boom isn’t limited to Santorini. Domestic tourism revenues rose 16% in the first five months of this year, Reuters reports, and 2024 is expected to eclipse last year’s record of 33 million arrivals.
“Recently, the growth of tourism in Greece has attracted considerable attention, particularly with regard to the islands of Santorini and Mykonos,” Maria Deligianni, CLIA’s regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, said in a statement. She confirmed the cruise lines’ commitment to respecting the 8,000-passenger cap and said there was strong interest in diversifying Greek itineraries to relieve pressure on the most popular destinations.
Currently, almost two-thirds of cruise tourism in Greece takes place in Piraeus, Santorini and Mykonos, CLIA said.
“Santorini has one of the most important archaeological sites in Europe today,” Chimenti explains. “Why don’t cruise ships organize tours of the archaeological sites? If you divide the people into three parts of the island, so that they do several things at the same time at different times, they will have time to enjoy themselves and there will never be crowds in any part of the island.”
“It was absolutely magical”
Santorini’s breathtakingly romantic landscapes have made it a popular choice for honeymoons and destination weddings. Katie Haslam from Rochdale, England, honeymooned there in July, but she says careful planning was key to ensuring she and her husband, Rob, had the holiday of their dreams.
“We didn’t want to go to Fira because we had read that it was very crowded,” she explains. So they chose a village perched on a cliff, a few kilometers from the capital, and “it was just incredible, charming and quiet.”
The day they entered Fira, “I think there were about eight cruise ships coming in, with thousands and thousands of people, so we stayed away.”
There was love in the air, too. “We attended at least two weddings a day,” she said. “One day, there were six.”
As for the famous sunsets, which, like so many others, were their main attraction, they avoided the city crowd and “sat on our balcony every night at 8 o’clock with a bottle of wine. It was absolutely magical.”
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