Few Greeks doubt the importance of tourism to the Greek economy. But as visitor numbers soar and a large share of investment activity goes into tourism – new hotels, villas and short-term rental apartments – concerns are growing not only about tourism’s environmental impact but also the identity of the destinations most affected.
Another very real concern is that holidays in Greece are becoming increasingly unaffordable for Greeks.
These are some of the basic findings of the third major nationwide survey conducted by the polling company Pulse for Kathimerini newspaper, specifically for the paper’s “Rethinking Greek Tourism” initiative.
The “Rethink Tourism” initiative was officially launched last year, with plans for a major event in October aimed at strengthening dialogue between the stakeholders and actors involved in the effort – government, grassroots organisations and businesses – to explore and promote a new paradigm of tourism that strengthens the country’s economic interests while at the same time protecting the natural environment and identity of tourist destinations.
George Arapoglou, CEO and CIO of Pulse RC, told Kathimerini that given that this is the third survey, it allows them to complement and confirm trends in Greek society by comparing and contrasting the responses from previous times.
Firstly, almost nine in ten respondents (87%) agree that tourism is “fairly important” to the Greek economy. And while the public continues to have a great deal of confidence in the political choices being made for the future of tourism, with 54% of those surveyed saying they are “moving in the right direction,” the majority of respondents agree that these policies need improvement.
Another trend that is gaining support is the request to “reduce the number of foreign tourists, but increase the number of economically able tourists,” with support for this category increasing from 42% in last year’s survey to 45%, while the request to “increase the number of tourists regardless of economic ability” was at just 20% (23% last year).
“The survey includes a complementary special questionnaire that allows us to better understand how Greek citizens see their future and the benefits and consequences of the country’s main source of income,” the head of Pars RC said in a statement.
Serious concerns and worries are clearly expressed in these surveys, and compared to previous surveys, these have also intensified: protecting the natural environment from the impacts of increased tourism and managing resources are the top concerns for 64% of respondents, compared to 60% last June.
According to the Pulse Survey, 40% of respondents believe that tourism developments “probably” ignore their impact on the environment, while 24% believe that they definitely ignore it. Only 30% believe that environmental considerations are a factor in planning, and of those, only 5% say that they definitely take it into account, and 25% say that they probably do.
When it comes to short-term rentals and the impact the market is having on the urban and social fabric of Athens, where the phenomenon is most intense, 61% of respondents living outside Attica expressed caution, with 35% saying they were “definitely” worried and 26% saying they were “probably” worried. Among respondents living in Attica, this caution rose to 69%, with 34% saying they were “definitely”, 23% saying they were “probably” worried and just 11% saying they were “not very” worried.
“What we are seeing again is a very positive perception of tourism and a recognition of its importance to the country. This does not mean that people are not critical and think that tourism increasingly has aspects that need more attention or that are cause for alarm,” Arapoglou said.
“The survey results confirm the interest and desire of Greek citizens for an even better performance with fewer negative impacts and greater economic and other benefits,” he added.
Market forecasts predict that the number of international tourists will increase by 10% this year compared to last year, while tourism revenues are expected to grow by around 5%. According to official statistics from the Bank of Greece, tourist numbers are set to grow by 20.8% to 36,082,000 in 2023, meaning that a predicted 10% increase would mean 39.7 million visitors, just short of the psychological threshold of 40 million, or about four times the population of Greece.
Tourism revenues in 2023 will be 20,593 million euros, up 16.5% compared to 2022. This is due to a 20.8% increase in non-resident tourist movements and an increase in average spending per night of 6.9 euros (8.6%) to 87.2 euros in 2023 from 80.3 euros last year. However, spending per trip will decrease by 3.5% from 591.7 euros last year to 570.7 euros, as the average length of stay will also decrease by 11.2%, from 7.4 nights to 6.5 nights in 2022. The increase in revenues therefore comes from an increase in the number of overnight stays (up 7.3% from 220,213,100 to 236,271,200 in 2022) and an increase in spending per person per day.
These visitors and their spending in the country (not including airfare and other travel expenses) are not evenly distributed across the country’s destinations or throughout the year. According to the Central Bank report, a staggering 90.5% of 2023 revenues will come from five of Greece’s 13 regions: the South Aegean (EUR 5.34 billion), Crete (EUR 5.196 billion), Attica (EUR 3.787 billion), the Ionian Islands (EUR 2.039 billion) and Central Macedonia (EUR 1.515 billion).
Meanwhile, the Greek Ombudsman recently published a report outlining a series of problems facing these five regions, particularly their most popular tourist destinations, due to the concentration of tourists.
Specifically, an independent report entitled “Sustainable Tourism Development: Frameworks, Infrastructure and Resources” cited the following issues as being of critical importance: “The incomplete spatial planning framework and violation of existing limits, intensive construction and degradation of public spaces, effective protection of cultural heritage, insufficient frameworks for the protection of protected areas and landscapes, increasing pressure on coastal areas, risk of depletion or degradation of water resources, inadequate waste management, problems with the development of road networks and general transport infrastructure.”
investigation
The survey on Kathimerini’s initiative, “Rethinking Tourism in Greece”, was conducted by the Pulse RC polling company, online, using telephone and electronic questionnaires.
The survey was conducted nationwide from June 18 to 20 among 1,105 eligible voters.
