Overtourism anger is coming to a head in Greece, with employees within the Greek tourism sector making ready to protest, demanding pay rises and shorter working weeks.
Labor unions are organizing protests in ports, airports, and archaeological websites to boost consciousness concerning the poor wages paid to business employees.
“We’re asking for a rise of 12% for the subsequent two years, that’s 6% for annually. We’re additionally asking – in 2024 – that the 5-day/40-hour working week even be utilized to us,” Giorgos Hotzoglou, president of the Hellenic Federation of Tourism Workers, advised Euronews in a report revealed Monday.
If the protests happen, they would be the first in Greece following a summer time of anti-tourism backlash throughout Europe. This summer time, Barcelona and Tenerife noticed a wave of anger erupt on metropolis streets after an inflow of vacationers pushed customer numbers to a report excessive.
Greece has in all probability witnessed the worst facet of tourism, an business its financial system has come to depend on closely. Between 25% and 30% of the nation’s GDP now comes from tourism-linked actions; in some islands, that proportion spikes to 90%.
Nonetheless, it’s onerous to miss mass tourism’s influence on Greece in recent times. It has been blamed for exacerbating a housing and useful resource scarcity.
Final 12 months, the nation welcomed practically 33 million overseas guests—over 3 times the dimensions of Greece’s inhabitants.
Regardless of that staggering determine, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis insists the nation isn’t going through overtourism. As an alternative, it wants to enhance its administration of areas which have develop into vacationer clusters.
“It is vitally harmful to current Greece as a spot that’s not welcoming to vacationers,” Mitsotakis advised the Monetary Instances final month.
Tourism clearly has proven no indicators of abating. Current authorities knowledge in Greece exhibits that revenues from the business have ticked down this 12 months regardless of a rise in arrivals.
If it had been as much as the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE), it could flip the nation’s “sun-and-sea” enchantment and focus as a substitute on providing experiences that really assist it enhance.
SETE didn’t instantly return Fortune’s request for remark.
Europe’s battle over tourism
Residents of the cities which have been coping with a swell in vacationers have argued that the once-positive power is now hurting residents’ high quality of life by pushing housing prices up and turning native neighborhoods into vacationer points of interest.
Greece is way from alone within the disaster it faces, and lots of nations have taken issues into their very own palms.
Hungary is contemplating measures to pause the issuance of short-term Airbnb licenses in its capital metropolis of Budapest.
In the meantime, Venice has launched a so-called vacationer tax, banned loudspeakers, and capped customer teams at 25 this 12 months within the hopes that it could hold the influence of mass tourism below management. Not too far-off, Amsterdam plans to halve the variety of cruises docking within the city to restrict vacationer nuisance.
