‘Cruise shipping has burdened Santorini and Mykonos’ – Greek PM slaps tourists with hefty levy

The Greek Prime Minister is making a stand against overtourism by charging cruise passengers to the popular islands of Mykonos and Santorini.

At a press conference outlining his economic policies for 2025, Kyriakos Mitsotakis said cruise ship visitors to the popular destinations would need to pay €20 ($33) during the peak summer period.

“Cruise shipping has burdened Santorini and Mykonos and this is why we are proceeding with interventions,” he said.

The revenue from the tax will be used to fund local communities and invest in local infrastructure.

The tax is just one part of his strategy to tackle overtourism. He also said that Greece is currently mulling a tax on short-term rentals in Athens in a bid to increase housing for residents. Additionally, there are plans to limit the amount of cruise shops simultaneously arriving in one destination.

According to the UK publication the Independent, last year 1.3 million cruise passengers visited Santorini onboard 800 ships. Approximately 750 cruise ships visited Mykonos, which was up 23 per cent on the year before.

The numbers are large when we consider that the residential population of Santorini is 16,000. The influx of tourists has often meant the island’s beaches and narrow streets become extremely overcrowded. There is already a limit in place where no more than 8000 people are allowed to visit per day.

Last month the mayor of Santorini called out new constructions on the island.

“We live in a place of barely 25,000 souls and we don’t need any more hotels or any more rented rooms,” he said. “If you destroy the landscape, one as rich as ours, you destroy the very reason people come here in the first place.”

The Greek islands are just the latest European hotspot to take a stand against overtourism.

Earlier this year, the mayor of Barcelona said the city would scrap the licenses of 10,101 apartments approved as short-term rentals adding they would become open to locals instead.

According to Spanish publication El Pais, rents in Barcelona are the highest they have ever been, rising 68 per cent since 2014.  As we have seen in other densely populated cities such as London, New York and Sydney, the skyrocketing cost of rent means that young people native to Spain have been priced out of the city.

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Feature image: Santorini