With a flood of foreign visitors fueling seemingly unstoppable development on once-pristine Greek islands, local residents and officials are starting to fight back, moving to stem a wave of construction that has begun to cause water shortages and change the islands’ unique cultural identity.
Tourism is vital in Greece, as it accounts for a fifth of the country’s economic output and communities on many islands depend on it. But critics say development has gotten out of control in some areas, particularly on islands such as Mykonos and Paros, where large-scale hotel complexes have sprung up in recent years.
Teachers and other professionals on these and other islands in the Cyclades, a popular cluster in the Aegean Sea, are struggling to find affordable housing amid an influx of visitors and homebuyers, fueling growing local protests about the effects of rampant tourism.
The islands, at the forefront of Greece’s tourism boom, are facing increasingly urgent calls to preserve their natural and cultural heritage.
The number of foreign arrivals to Greece broke another record in 2023, with 30.9 million in the first 10 months of the year, according to the Bank of Greece — up 17% on the previous year and surpassing pre-pandemic tourism levels.
To meet this demand, 461 new hotels opened on Greece’s southern Aegean islands from 2020 to 2023, according to data from the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels compiled by the Athens-based Tourism Research Institute. Of those, 126 opened last year, according to the institute.
The proliferation of swimming pools has put severe pressure on the water supply on Cycladic islands such as Sifnos and Tinos, and the aggressive expansion of beach bars onto pristine beaches on many islands has sparked backlash from locals.
Environmentalists and architects are also leading a push to preserve the character of the Cyclades, which they say is in danger of disappearing amid a homogenization of property-driven holiday destinations.
The Museum of Cycladic Art based in Athens, which presents the unique marble figurines that were made on these islands during antiquity and influenced the course of Western art, collaborates with local authorities and associations for the same purpose.
Greece’s tourism minister, Olga Kefalogianni, recently pledged that seamless development will no longer be unchecked.
“We have a clear vision and goal for the sustainability of our destinations and our tourism product,” he said last month at a conference in Athens. He said that going forward, more emphasis would be placed on protecting the natural environment and cultural identity of individual destinations, with legislation being drafted to support this effort.
Those pushing for change are not convinced.
“It’s very easy to talk about sustainable development, but all they’re really doing is approving new investments,” said Ioannis Spilanis, former secretary general of island policy at Greece’s shipping ministry and now head of the Aegean Sustainable Tourism Observatory.
Mr Spilanis, originally from Serifos, was one of several experts who spoke at a November conference on Mykonos about how tourism has “radically changed” the Cyclades. The event was organized by local authorities who recently appealed to Greece’s highest court over a project for a five-star hotel complex and a marina for superyachts. (The court allowed the development, but limited the size of the marina.)
Nikos Chrysogelos, a former member of the European Parliament with the Green Ecologist party who has launched a sustainability initiative across the Cyclades, said developers are overlooking the Cyclades’ unique features and treating them like suburbs of the city.
“You could see farms, dry stone walls — there was a harmony in the landscape,” said Mr. Chrysogelos, Sifnios. “Now you see roads, hotel complexes, high walls. It could be Dubai or Athens.”
Nikos Belios, a secondary school principal and head of the local cooperative of farmers and beekeepers, said Sifnos had experienced an influx of investors “from all over the planet, building colossal structures, like fortresses, with huge walls” to cater to wealthy tourists.
“They arrive, load up their Cayennes or Jeeps or Hummers and lock themselves away,” he said of the tourists. “They have no interest in Sifnos – it’s a dot on the map for them.”
Last year, Maria Nadali, the mayor of Sifnos, urged the Greek government to put the brakes on “runaway” tourism development — including banning the construction of further private swimming pools and “cave houses” built into hillsides, a trend she said. it was changing the “morphology and the unique architectural physiognomy of the island”.
The Museum of Cycladic Art has also been involved, trying to help the islanders protect the natural environment and heritage of the islands. The museum organizes programs on eight islands, with themes such as the preservation of the ancient marble quarries of Paros – the source of many Cycladic antiquities – and the documentation and promotion of traditional water management practices in Andros.
“We are trying to help them protect their heritage,” said Kassandra Marinopoulou, the museum’s chief executive and president, citing increased tourism, the abandonment of local traditions and the effects of climate change as key threats.
The initiative also aims to support cultural tourism on the islands, with digital tours and the promotion of local gastronomy, said Ms Marinopoulou, whose family is from Andros.
“We don’t want Cycladic food to disappear because the younger generations sell the family tavern and it becomes a sushi bar,” he said. “What a visitor wants is authenticity. They don’t want to see something they’ve seen in Ibiza — that’s not authentic.”
Amid the glut of five-star hotels, some businesses are seeking to promote “slow travel” as an alternative model that supports local communities rather than marginalizing them.
One of them, the travel startup Boundless Life, exposes foreign visitors to local culture with pottery workshops, textile factory visits and Greek lessons. “When we choose new Boundless locations, we are very keen to identify cultural gems and protect them,” said Elodie Ferchaud, founder of the travel startup, which has brought many foreign families to Syros for a three-month stay.
However, many natives of the Cyclades say that a complete overhaul of Greece’s tourism model is needed.
“We have to find a way to survive,” Mr. Spilanis said. “Destroying the very assets you’re sitting on is not the way.”