Yahoo News Tourists in Greece face being charged new 'minimum' daily fee in popular holiday spots
Tourists in popular holiday spots in Greece may be asked to pay a new daily fee.
Greece is bringing in measures to tackle the impact of cruises, it has warned. An increase in the disembarkation price of passengers, especially for Santorini, is on the table.
According to a government official, the disembarkation fee "cannot be lower than 10 euros for Santorini". The proposals were laid out in a meeting a few days ago with the participation of the ministers of tourism, Olga Kefalogianni, shipping, Christos Stylianides, state, Akis Skertzos and the CEO of the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund, Dimitris Politis.
A new study is expected to be requested on the daily number of visitors the island can handle. At the moment, the 8,000 passengers per day limit for the island does not reflect the realities on the ground, according to local media in the holiday hotspot.
Greece’s tourism boom isn’t just in Santorini. National tourism revenues rose 16% in the first five months of this year, Reuters reports, and 2024 is expected to eclipse last year’s record 33 million arrivals, according to forecasts.
Currently, nearly two-thirds of cruise tourism in Greece takes place in Piraeus, Santorini and Mykonos, CLIA said. One of the most famous islands in the world, Santorini is actually a group of islands: Thira, Thirassia, Aspronissi, Palea and Nea Kameni in the southernmost part of the Cyclades, according to Visit Greece, a government tourism website.
Curious voyagers are especially making their way to Santorini, about 297 miles south of Athens, to get a glimpse of the island's beauty in its natural state. Ekathimerini said that numbers are “skyrocketing” when taking into consideration those that arrive on the daily ferries to Santorini, reports BirminghamLive.
For many of Santorini's 20,000 permanent residents, the once idyllic island of quaint villages and pristine beaches has been ruined by mass tourism.
