Santorini 2025: Year of Promoting and Supporting Authenticity

Because “authenticity” is the new avocado toast, the Municipality of Thira is rolling out a new initiative called Santorini 2025: Year of Promoting and Supporting Authenticity, which will foster a series of training seminars for frontliners in tourism—the people forced to smile at tourists all day. Think tour guides, excursion escorts, food service staff, hotel receptionists, and anyone else who can’t hide behind an “out of order” sign.

Here’s what it’s called (brace yourselves):

“Getting to Know Santorini: The Place, the Time, the People”

Yes, it’s as ambitious as it sounds. The seminars aim to give participants enough facts and feelings about the island to communicate its essence convincingly.

What’s the Big Idea Here?

The goal is to ensure everyone working in Santorini hospitality businesses stops lying to tourists about stuff like “this is the exact rock where Zeus first drank ouzo.”

Okay, kidding. The real aim is to:

• Raise awareness about what makes Santorini unique, from its dramatic landscapes to its peculiar local customs.
• Teach participants about the island’s history, traditions, and culture—in digestible bites.
• Explain the importance of sustainability and why polite tourists are better than drunk ones or whatever.
• Enhance customer interactions so visitors leave raving about “authentic” experiences instead of complaining about room keys that don’t work.

What Will You Learn?

These seminars won’t bore people with PowerPoints full of pie charts. Here’s a taste of the topics:

• The island’s geological wonders (“Hey, did you know we were born out of a volcanic blast? Pretty badass, right?”)
• Ancient and modern history (a.k.a. “Here’s what we snagged from the Mycenaeans”).
• Santorini’s cultural quirks, traditions, and festivals (“Yes, Greeks do throw plates. It’s a thing, deal with it.”).
• A breakdown of local food, wine, and farming (“Because you can’t call it authentic if it’s made in a factory”).
• The human and natural environment and how they awkwardly coexist.
• Why hospitality isn’t just handing people keys—it’s storytelling, baby.

What’s special here? Presentations morph into discussions, and participants are encouraged to talk, ask, and throw shade (respectfully). Interpret it as a group vent session about tourists complaining there’s “too much history on an old island.”

When and Where You Can Get Cultured

To make things super convenient, the sessions repeat three times:

• April 9, 2025
• May 7, 2025
• June 4, 2025

Events run in the mornings, basically for the early birds with a fresh coffee buzz. Specific venues will be announced soon, so stay tuned.

These seminars are part of a full-on preservation effort to keep the island’s identity alive and not smothered by cliché souvenir shops or tacky plastic flip-flops. Show up, learn some cool stuff, and maybe even stop rolling your eyes at tourists—for a day.