Overtourism anger is coming to a head in Greece, with employees within the Greek tourism sector getting ready to protest, demanding pay rises and shorter working weeks.
Labor unions are organizing protests in ports, airports, and archaeological websites to boost consciousness in regards to the poor wages paid to business employees.
“We are asking for an increase of 12% for the next two years, that is 6% for each year. We are also asking – in 2024 – that the 5-day/40-hour working week also be applied to us,” Giorgos Hotzoglou, president of the Hellenic Federation of Tourism Staff, 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 document excessive.
Greece has most likely 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 laborious to miss mass tourism’s impression on Greece lately. It has been blamed for exacerbating a housing and useful resource scarcity.
Final 12 months, the nation welcomed almost 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 turn out to be vacationer clusters.
“It is very dangerous to present Greece as a place that is not welcoming to tourists,” Mitsotakis advised the Monetary Occasions final month.
Tourism clearly has proven no indicators of abating. Latest authorities information in Greece reveals 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 an alternative on providing experiences that actually 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 drive is now hurting residents’ high quality of life by pushing housing prices up and turning native neighborhoods into vacationer sights.
Greece is much from alone within the disaster it faces, and plenty of international locations 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 maintain the impression of mass tourism beneath management. Not too distant, Amsterdam plans to halve the quantity of cruises docking within the city to restrict vacationer nuisance.
