Two views on ‘overtourism’, STRs and … trendy Grecian holidays

By all accounts, 2025 will be another banner year for Greece’s all-important tourism and holiday industry, a sector that attracts tens of millions of people from around the world every year and annually pumps more than 20 billion euros into the local economy.

The substantial economic benefits that tourism generates for Greece is a result of the east Mediterranean nation’s surging global popularity as a destination that combines the traditional “sea-and-sun” recipe with ample doses of culture, cuisine and “living” history - and more recently, “city breaks” in urban areas – especially in the historic Athens center.

Yet the boon in the tourism and travel-related sector has not come without some side effects - marginal many would say when looking at the plentiful “bottom line”; “concerning and requiring action”, according to others, traditionalists, local residents and certain political quarters of the “anti-capitalist” persuasion. “Overtourism” is a leitmotif “making the rounds” of news sites over the recent period, with a handful of European sites (Barcelona, Venice, Santorini etc.) mostly in the spotlight. Additionally, the explosive expansion of short-term rentals (STRs) and leasing, the “Airbnb effect”, has also generated “blowback”, with the invective usually conjuring up perceived or real gentrification, hordes of trolley-totting tourists and locals priced out of rental residences and other amenities.

In the latest episode of “Explaining Greece”, we speak with Ioannis Pappas, an engineer by training with a doctorate in applied mechanics, whose has been professionally involved in the sector for more than a decade with a focus on tourism sustainability, which he details.

Also on our latest podcast is Eftichea Koumartzaki, a UK and Greece-based tourism professional who manages short-term rental properties in the greater Athens area, the Peloponnese and two of Greece’s most popular isles.

Koumartzaki is also a member of the local chapter of STAMA, the Short-Term Accommodation Managers Association of Greece.

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