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On Santorini, a volcano is waiting to erupt, but it's not the world-famous caldera.
The stunning whitewashed houses, blue-domed churches and azure skies and seas of this unique and beautiful Greek island reportedly attract 3.4 million visitors a year, far more than Santorini’s 20,000 permanent residents.
On peak days in high season, the island sees as many as 17,000 cruise passengers, heading straight to hotspots like the capital, Fira, and the town of Oia on the northwestern tip, known for its spectacular sunsets. It has even been nicknamed “Instagram Island” for its perfectly saturated, “no filter” beauty.
The narrow cobbled streets and cliff-top balconies are packed with holidaymakers looking for sunset selfies, and locals are disturbed as they go about their daily business. But as night falls, the crowds disperse, with some complaining that the island transforms from Times Square into a ghost town.
It is a volatile mix that has led to growing discontent on this Cyclades island in the Aegean Sea, whose rugged landscape was shaped by a volcanic eruption around 1600 BC.
Visitor limit coming in 2025
Santorini Mayor Nikos Zorzos has proposed a cap on cruise passengers, reduced to 8,000 per day. It is a move backed by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who told Bloomberg the measure is planned for next year.
Anti-tourism protests have been a political flashpoint in Europe this summer, with demonstrations in Spain, the Netherlands and beyond. On Thursday, Venice limited tour group sizes to 25 people and banned megaphones after recently declaring a success its temporary admission fee, which generated about $2.64 million in revenue for the city.
Overtourism has become a buzzword in the travel industry in recent years. Popular destinations struggle to balance the demand for tourist dollars with the quality of life of their residents, while maintaining an attractive and sustainable environment for everyone.
According to some, Santorini is not just about the large number of tourists.
'The island is empty'
“There is no such thing as overtourism. What I see is a lack of structures,” Gianluca Chimenti, a local tour operator and Santorini resident for 18 years, tells CNN Travel. While social media is filled with images of severe overcrowding in the island’s hotspots during peak times, he says the picture is very different the rest of the time.
“The truth is the island is empty. It's like never before, it's the worst season ever.”
July and August are high season in Santorini, but the town centres are dead after 9pm and restaurants and hotels are far from full, he says. Cruise ship passengers are valued and much needed, as are the longer-staying visitors who arrive by boat or plane, but he says locals feel that something needs to be done.
In the mid-to-late 20th century, Santorini was a sleepy idyll where residents got around on donkeys and grew tomatoes and vineyards for wine. Now, the island’s aging infrastructure is under severe strain, particularly the main port at Fira.
Unless they want to take a long and very steep walk, the cable car is the only option for cruise passengers to get from the old port to the city center, Chimenti points out, and “it is completely normal for there to be a queue when all the cruise ships arrive at the same time.”
But once the rush is over, “hotels are now about 30% occupancy compared to a normal season,” he claims, adding that other businesses on the island are taking a similar hit.
“The problem is that social media is showing something completely different than reality,” he says. While there will be a lot of tourists visiting this year, there are also many others who are put off by its overcrowded reputation and don't consider it a year-round destination for extended stays.
The need to diversify
Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), a global industry association, announced on August 1 that it had met with Greek Maritime Minister Christos Stylianides to discuss the crisis, including the improvement and modernization of port infrastructure and services.
Greece’s tourism boom isn’t limited to Santorini. National tourism revenues rose 16% in the first five months of this year, Reuters reports, and are expected to surpass last year’s record 33 million arrivals in 2024.
“Recently, the growth of tourism in Greece has received a lot of attention, particularly with regard to the islands of Santorini and Mykonos,” Maria Deligianni, CLIA’s regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, said in a statement. She reaffirmed the cruise lines’ commitment to maintaining the 8,000-passenger visitor cap and said there was a lot of interest in diversifying Greek itineraries to take pressure off the most popular spots.
Currently, almost two-thirds of cruise tourism in Greece takes place in Piraeus, Santorini and Mykonos, according to CLIA.
“Santorini has one of the most important archaeological sites in Europe right now,” says Chimenti. “Why don’t cruise ships organize tours to the archaeological sites? If you divide the people into three parts of the island, so that they do different things at different times,” he says, “they have time to enjoy themselves and you never have crowds anywhere on the island.”
“It was absolutely magical”
Santorini’s breathtakingly romantic vistas have made it a hugely popular choice for honeymoons and destination weddings. Katie Haslam from Rochdale, England, spent her honeymoon there in July, but she says careful planning was key to giving her and her husband Rob the holiday of their dreams.
“We didn’t want to go to Fira because we had read that it was really crowded,” she says. Instead, they chose a clifftop village just a few kilometres from the capital, and “it was just amazing, beautiful and quiet.”
The one day they walked into Fira, “I think there were about eight cruise ships coming in, thousands and thousands of people, so we just stayed away.”
Love was in the air, too. “We saw at least two weddings every day,” she says. “One day there were six weddings.”
As for the famous sunsets, which like many others were their biggest draw, they avoided the city crowds and “would sit on our balcony every night at 8pm with a bottle of wine. It was absolutely magical.”
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