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.”
Fiorentinos said central government was also focused on “modernising infrastructure to make it easier for people to visit”.
This includes improving roads and airports in the country to help the spread of tourists, as well as focusing on marketing messages away from sun and sea products to concentrate instead on offerings such as hiking, wine and culinary tourism and spa products.
The tourist office is also promoting city breaks, in particular to Athens and Thessaloniki, where the government is currently building a new metro system to help encourage tourists.
The UK was the number one source market to Greece in 2024, with more than three million Brits travelling to the country between January and the end of August. Overall, Greece welcomed 35 million visitors between January and the end of September.
However, Fiorentinos said despite visitor numbers being 5% higher than in 2023, tourist arrivals were down in the Cyclades islands, which include Santorini and Mykonos.
Fiorentinos admitted this raised questions around whether they were providing value for money. "Maybe they were overpriced,” he added.
