Budget airline Wizz Air has just announced an expected 15-20% increase in passengers for next year. Also in the news, the Island of Rhodes lost six Blue Flag beaches withdrawn from the 2024 national and international lists. Greece lost some 22 Blue Flag designations by the end of July 2024. In this report, I will discuss the correlation between unsustainable tourism and the paradise islands of Greece being “Wizzed on.”
Greece Is So, So, Big!
When I read a GTP report that showed an image of Greek Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni glowing at the announcement of inbound travel having increased by 15.5% over 2023 numbers, I couldn’t help but notice several meaningful correlations. A dirt cheap airline a hobo from the Netherlands could afford to vacation with is pushing to fly still more people who should probably be having picnics in Amsterdam rather than parading about Greek islands and “Wizzing about.”
I feel badly speaking so plainly, but seeing the human-like cattle prancing up and down the pedestrian streets of Heraklion, Crete – well, it’s finally and utterly jaded me. And so have the officials and the corporations that pull their strings. So, Greece got lucky when the Blue Flag people visited her beaches. Only about 4% of them were trashed, even though 20% more tourists arrived! Walking some of these so-called Blue Flag wonders here in Heraklion (Rhodes lost about 10%). Then again, luck probably has little to do with which beaches get the Blue Flag designations. Looking at the lists, it’s curiously fascinating to take note of how many of these crystal-clear beaches are in front of resorts! Well, this could be a coincidence or a development plan that is very farsighted for resort owners, I guess.
Still, I wonder if the volunteers with Blue Flag would change their votes if they visited today? The Northern beaches of Crete are washed clean by the prevailing seas and winds, rejuvenating the waters offshore. However, the Blue Flag designation has as much to do with cleanliness, proper environmental management (including Wizz), actions to protect the coastal environment and coastal space, and other criteria. Crete Island is rapidly becoming a trash pile with beaches speckled with solid waste bricks from ships (not to mention rotten air quality), which is another matter. As I’ve suggested many times, the real problem is the collective corporate thinking that dominates everything these days. Well, Greece is just that huge, right?
Failing Marks and Oligarchs
Growth! When I first heard Greece’s tourism geniuses bragging about attracting more cruise ships to Greece, it hit me hard. The fact that distant investors and Greek oligarchs willfully ruin their own golden gooses – well, it’s hard to accept that intelligent business people could keep pushing such unsustainable development and old-fashioned ideas. I blame Sam Walton and Walmart in my own country. The Walton family, the world’s richest, has a moral sense like that of the most bloodthirsty mafiosos. Hell, for all we know, they could be Jewish mafia. If TUI and other German companies have little Hitlers in their lineage, why not discover the new Al Capones and Arnold “The Brain” Rothstein types in America and elsewhere? Let’s face it: business and the well-to-do have been “Wizzing” on the rest of us since we exited caves.
Departing from the geopolitical/cultural aspects, we find deplorable ship environmental report cards if we cross-reference the cruise ships plying Greek waters these days. Friends of the Earth lists the good, bad, and ugly here. What grabs me instantly is the “F” scorecard for Viking Cruises in 2022. As of this morning, one of their ships is currently docked alongside another cruise vessel in Heraklion’s port. Visit the link and be amazed at how many have “Fs” for water quality compliance (Wizz?). Let’s return to the brilliant strategies for revenue growth that are the root cause of Greece’s overtourism problem.
Tax the Poor Some More
Take the recent action by Tourism Minister Kefalogianni introducing a fee for cruise passengers who disembark at Greek ports, set at 20 euros per passenger for the popular destinations of Mykonos and Santorini and at five euros in other parts of the country during high season. This is truly a spectacular plan to increase the treasuries in Athens, gouge travelers, and subtract revenue from local businesses that might otherwise enjoy 5 to 20 euros per cruise line visitor. What the Greek government is doing here is essentially raising taxes for the country’s already overburdened citizens.
Of course, this may be a pessimistic point of view. Still, the allocation of monies Greek officials disperse, however they are derived, is a question any Crete taxi driver can elaborate on better than I. A recent investigation we carried out in Apokoronas showed the horrific state of bureaucratic “Wizzing” that’s killing this island.
In a decade, maybe two, the number of whizzed-on touristic spots like Balos Lagoon (above on a slow day) in Greece will undoubtedly increase. And in the end, not even a Belgian bricklayer will want to travel here. I am not putting down bricklayers; I once built houses, but in my most lucrative blue-collar days, I never could afford Greece. Now that I think about it, I did the country a favor by staying home. And I love Greece.
