Greece’s “most crowded island” has launched a crackdown as cruise ship tourists double the population on some days.
Santorini, an island in the Aegean Sea, is beloved by visitors for its white and blue buildings and scenic sunsets. But increasing tourist numbers are causing problems for locals, with streets packed full of those coming in on cruise ships.
Santorini saw over almost 10,000 visitors a day on average in 2024. This can reach over 15,000 on peak days. The population of the island is just over 15,000.
In July, a social media post by a councillor urged residents to stay indoors to facilitate a crowd of 17,000 cruise ship passengers expected on the island that day.
The post went viral before being taken down – but not before it had infuriated locals and triggered the Santorini overtourism debate beyond national borders.
The island’s authorities are now taking action to limit the congestion, with Mayor Nikos Zorzos adamant that the reported tourist flow ‘saturation’ (how he refers to overtourism) can be successfully dealt with.
The three-time mayor explained they will remobilise a pre-existing digital system that spreads out cruise ship arrivals to avoid congestion and are open to the idea of a special tourist access fee.
Speaking to the Greek Reporter, He said: “This summer, we had 63 scheduled difficult days for arrivals on which we were expecting huge numbers of visitors beyond the island’s capacity.
“However, through communication with the respective cruise ship companies, we managed to drop that number of days to half.
“Those 8,000 visitor arrivals per day suggested by the University of the Aegean study are totally sustainable if we allow the designated time between cruise ship berths, thus preventing congestion at all spots on the island.”
Government officials last week proposed increasing the existing debarkation fee on popular Greek cruise stops from 30p to over £8 per passenger as a solution to tackle overtourism.
Mayor Zorzos said that he would “welcome” the measure “with joy” but only if the extra funds were allocated to the local administration.
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