Greece’s government is considering to increase the landing price in Santorini for cruise ship passengers, following the example of Venice, as the island in the Aegean Sea is under immense pressure by visiting tourists.
The increase in the “ticket” price for cruise ship passengers from 2 euros currently, to €10 for islands such as Santorini and Mykonos, is one of the measures expected to be taken to deal with over-tourism, daily kathimerini.gr reported.
A government official has reportedly declared that “it cannot be below 10 euros for Santorini”.
In the broad meeting held a few days ago at the presidency of the government with the participation of the ministers of Tourism Olga Kefalogiannis, Shipping Christos Stylianides, State Akis Skertsou and the managing director of TAIPED Dimitris Politis, all the proposals fell on the table.
According to the newspaper, there are divergent opinions within the government, with some government officials arguing that even a complete ban on cruises to the Greek islands should be considered. Against this point of view there is the strong resistance by the financial staff that argues that Greece cannot bear to lose the income from the cruise.
There are also more moderate voices, who argue that Greece, as a tourism country par excellence, cannot ignore the parameter of the cruise, which is an important aspect of the tourism product as a whole.
There are those who insist that maybe in specific destinations – with Santorini as a main example – the cruise has caused problems that need to be addressed, but there are other destinations that benefit from this tourism product.
Santorini study under way
A study is reportedly expected to be prepared to determine the maximum daily number of visitors that Santorini can receive.
It is noted that nowadays the ceiling is 8,000 visitors, but day boats are not included, as a result of which their number skyrockets.
*KTG recently reported of up to 17,000 daily visitors in addition to the other tourists who spend their vacations on the island of some 20,000 permanent residents. In July the chairman of a community on the island triggered an outrage when he called on locals to stay home so that cruise passengers and tourists have space to move around.
According to the government, Santorini will be treated as a special project due to the great tourist pressure it receives.
As pointed out by kathimerini.gr, the construction of a new port in Monolithos is expected to breathe life into the island.
Finally, the idea of entrusting the responsibility of the cruise to a specialized body seems to be gaining ground, in order to deal with the multi-division of responsibilities and to make it easier to immediately deal with problems that are identified.
PS It should be also noted that local businesses complain about the cruise passengers that they do not spend money on Santorini other than have a drink and/or a small souvenir, as they are full board on the cruiser.
