Greece Tries New Strategies to Avoid ‘Over-Tourism’

The department of tourism of Greece has come to a decision that they will be promoting the lesser-known islands instead of the more popular holiday attractions as a tactic of avoiding over-tourism in those locations as international travel reaches the 2019 demand levels.

While, Greece: If you Come Even Once, You Will Want to Stay Forever, the new campaign features the usual popular spots, it still sheds a prominent light on the areas that are less travelled.

Greece’s ministry of tourism made the strategic move to highlight the destinations that are less popular among travellers, while also promoting the regular tourist attractions like Mykonos, Santorini, Corfu, and Crete.

In an interview with a travel news portal, Vasilis Kikilias, the tourism minister of Greece made a statement saying, “Alternative destinations. So many of them: 124 inhabited islands. Yes, of course, it’s about Mykonos and Santorini and Corfu and Crete, but there are so many other destinations,”

Mr Kikilias stated that according to the new policies, the department of tourism of Greece will attempt at spreading tourism more evenly across the country to avoid the possibility of over-tourism.

Among the many in the list of destinations which will be under the spotlight starting from now, is Tinos.

The Cyclades is one of the main island groups of Greece, of which the widely popular tourist attractions, Mykonos and Santorini, is a part. It is typically packed with international visitors all year round. However, out of 33 islands of the Cyclades, there are still some locations that fly under the tourist radar and get overlooked.

Last year in the midst of the pandemic, while most countries are still under lockdown and had multiple strict travel restrictions still in place, Greece managed to attract more than 18 million tourists and vacationers. Though this number is still 34% below the number of tourists seen in 2019, the country is still showing signs of recovery in the tourism sector.