According to Eurostat data for 2023, the islands of the southern Aegean, such as Santorini and Mykonos, recorded 117 tourist nights per inhabitant. In Corfu, the corresponding number was 98 nights per inhabitant. As the tagesschau reports, these proportions make the Aegean and Ionian islands the places that received the most visitors among 237 different regions in the EU.
However, tourism has two faces, as FOCUS Online observes. Some experts “warn that the lucrative production of honey, wine and potatoes on Greek holiday islands is being dramatically reduced for the sake of tourism, while at the same time cheap labour from abroad is replacing domestic labour, potentially leading to local emigration”.
However, although the Greek tourism model is also not based on the principles of sustainability and environmental protection, and although the massive influx of tourists is causing housing problems for residents of many areas and leading to skyrocketing rents, “the government regularly celebrates the increase in the number of tourists as the greatest success of its policy”.
Source: tornosnews.gr