Huge queues on Greek isle of Santorini amid outrage at overtourism

Hordes of tourists have been seen streaming off a ferry onto the tiny Greek holiday destination of Santorini as fears mount the relentless torrent of arriving holidaymakers is making the island unlivable.

Inflammatory footage showed long lines of people disembarking from a ferry as those waiting to board were left queuing up in the heat in their droves.

Locals have increasingly shared outrage at the perceived over-saturation of the picturesque isle in the Aegean, with 17,000 tourists expected to arrive each day in the peak holiday season, according to councillor Panos Kavallaris.

‘I work seasonally here in Santorini,’ one commented under the clip on TikTok. ‘There is no respect for the island or for us, from garbage, to times when the buses don’t take us.’

‘Santorini was a stop on our cruise last year,’ one aggrieved tourist added, seeing the queues. ‘Should never have got off (and won’t next time). One Instagram spot, litter everywhere and absolutely rammed streets.’

The volcanic island, with a population of around 15,500, saw around 3.5million arrivals last year, with more expected to come through 2024.

Victor Karayannis, a local tour guide on the island, shared the footage of tourists arriving in Santorini with the caption: ‘I heard on the news that Santorini does not have so many tourists nowadays… cap [false]’.

The video was met with mixed responses, some saying they had visited quiet parts of the island or seen less foot traffic when travelling outside of the peak months.

One said: ‘The port yes is always a bit chaotic but Santorini’s is getting an unfair bad rep. It’s stunning and there are quieter areas eg Perissa. Just had a 10/10 holiday here.’

‘I’m so glad I went in 2007 before Instagram influencers were even a thing!’ another added. 

‘Honestly, what did you expect in the middle of July?’ a third said.

But for many on the island, the arrival of tourists en masse presents a potentially existential threat.

Santorini has relied on tourism since the 1960s, before which it largely depended on agriculture to support its economy.

‘They need to find the right balance’ hotel worker Onur Kilic, 28, told the i. ‘They could limit the amount of cruise ships, but the government is not doing enough – if this continues I will leave the island.’ 

Days prior, Mr Kavallaris urged residents in a since-deleted Facebook post to stay at home and avoid the 17,000 tourists he said authorities expect to arrive on the island per day.

‘Another difficult day for our city and island is ahead with the arrival of 17,000 visitors from cruise ships. We ask for your attention: limit your movements as much as possible,’ the councillor said, but the post quickly caused outrage among locals.

Residents criticised the councillor’s request, with one commenting on social media: ‘[He] officially asks locals to lock themselves at home, so that tourists can wander around free. Marvelous.’

Shocking images from the picturesque island this week show masses of tourists queuing on narrow walkways along white buildings with the famous sea-blue domes for the best holiday shots.

The queue to reach the viewing spot in the clifftop village of Oia can now take more than 20 minutes.

Santorini is a key stopover of the Greek cruise experience. But with parts of the island nearing saturation, officials are considering restrictions.

‘We need to set limits if we don’t want to sink under overtourism,’ Santorini mayor Nikos Zorzos said.

‘There must not be a single extra bed… whether in the large hotels or Airbnb rentals.’

Concerns about overtourism and its impact on locals have seen mass protests take place across Europe this year, with residents calling for restrictions on short-term lets to manage spiralling house prices, and greater diversification of economies.

Earlier this month, hundreds of residents in Alicante massed for the first time to demonstrate through areas of the Spanish city popular with tourists to ‘demand that limits be placed on the tourism industry’.

Salva, a spokesperson for the organising ‘Alicante donde vas?’ group, told MailOnline: ‘It is the administrations (city council, autonomous community, central government) that must take measures to put the needs of the people who live in the city at the forefront, compared to the wishes of those who visit the city.

‘We hope that the demonstration is the first step so that more people feel that it is legitimate to claim the right to live with dignity in our city, and to be able to join together to build a neighbourhood movement that says that Alicante is not for sale.’

At the start of July, tourists in Barcelona were sprayed with water guns as residents made their feelings known following perceived inaction by the local authorities.

Under the banner ‘Enough! Let’s put limits on tourism’, some 2,800 people – according to police – marched along a waterfront district of Barcelona to demand a new economic model that would reduce the millions of tourists that visit every year. 

Protesters carried signs reading ‘Barcelona is not for sale,’ and, ‘Tourists go home,’ before some used water guns on tourists eating outdoors at restaurants in popular tourist hotspots. 

Chants of ‘Tourists out of our neighbourhood’ rang out as some stopped in front of the entrances to hotels.

Barcelona’s rising cost of housing, up 68 percent in the past decade, is one of the main issues for the movement, along with the effects of tourism on local commerce and working conditions in the city of 1.6 million inhabitants. 

Rents rose by 18% in June from a year earlier in tourist cities such as Barcelona and Madrid, according to the property website Idealista. 

For years, the city has worn anti-tourist graffiti with messages such as ‘tourists go home’ aimed at visitors some blame for the rising prices and shaping of the economy around tourists.

Violent clashes broke out in Venice in April over a contentious new ‘tourist tax’ aimed at reducing numbers to the historical Italian city.

Demonstrators armed with signs and banners lined the historic canals and narrow alleyways of the Italian city to show their contempt for the unique new policy aimed at clamping down on overtourism in busy periods. 

Critics have claimed that the €5 (£4.30) fee, to be implemented in the busy summer months, is unlikely to put a significant dent in the circa 30 million trips made to Venice each year – and could backfire by tarnishing the city’s public image.

Under the new rules, a fee will be charged to tourists passing through the city without staying overnight. 

Authorities hope this might help manage the flow of some 30 million tourists drawn in by the city’s history and romantic canals each year. 

Venice has had a long wait to see the plan come to fruition, with initial proposals brought in 2019 set back by the pandemic.

The city also dropped plans to charge day-trippers €10 a day last year, citing ‘resistance’.