Greece urges cruise lines to do more to tackle mass tourism

It comes as the country refocuses its efforts to disperse tourists and encourage visitors to Greece throughout the year rather than in just the summer months and the shoulder seasons.

Secretary general Andreas N Fiorentinos insisted to TTG that while Greece doesn’t yet consider overtourism an issue for the country, it was already working on plans to prevent it, accelerated by a €300 million fund focusing on new infrastructure – including the construction of a new port in Santorini.

Fiorentinos said cruise ships presented a real challenge, with several ships often arriving at similar times on the same day resulting in huge numbers of tourists all wanting to see the same sights.

He said local governments were now working with Clia to better manage arrivals at the islands, but said he believed there should be “some sort of European mandate to have a more co-ordinated approach to cruise ship arrivals”.

“We don’t have an overtourism issue at the moment, but we have plans in place to pre-empt this. Local governments are working with Clia to manage arrivals at the island better to help visitors come to shore at different times.

“We’re also encouraging local governments to handle masses better by improving local infrastructure.”