- Greece’s tourism profits rely on herds of visitors, not bigger spending per guest.
- Mass tourism rules, but the perks don’t keep pace with the crowds.
- The “sun and sea” formula dominates, shifting away from tradition and culture.
- Spending per visitor actually decreased while hotels filled up and entire cities became Airbnb destinations.
- Sustainable tourism? Still a wish, tangled up in messy short-term wins over real, lasting benefits.
- The study offers 10 eye-rolling but practical proposals for shifting to quality-focused tourism.
- Climate change, rising prices, and shifting traveller habits spark fleeting trends in the Greek tourism calendar.
From Ouzo to Overcrowded: Greece’s Modern Tourism Story
Greek tourism once meant cultural trips and health spas. Fast forward to today, and it’s sunburns and souvlaki as far as the eye can see. The “sun and sea” package swallows three-quarters of Greece’s travel market. By 2019, bucket hats outnumbered monuments, accounting for 7.4% of Greece’s global summer tourist traffic (thanks to INSETE). Culture, religion, city breaks, and ocean-oriented vacations trail behind. Mass tourism draws everyone at once, so summer turns into a sweaty human traffic jam.
Greece’s travel revenue spikes between July and September—no surprises if you’ve tried to walk through Santorini in August. In 2024, the third quarter accounted for 53% of all annual tourism income, spring accounted for 27%, autumn accounted for 15%, and winter contributed just 5%. Not much changed before 2022, unless you count the time a virus politely hit ‘pause’ on the industry.
Then came 2023 and 2024, when summer’s dominance slipped by 6.5 percentage points. Blame city breaks (city breaks don’t care about the weather) and burnt-out travellers dodging high-season prices, not just extreme heat.
Mass Tourism’s Comedy of Errors: A Critical Look at Greece’s Not-So-Sustainable Model
For a decade, Greece’s main tourism trick was to pile on more visitors. Between 2011 and 2024, international arrivals shot from 15 million to almost 41 million, including cruise drop-offs. Too bad each visitor spent less. Average tourist spending dropped to € 530 in 2024 from € 640 in 2010. Vacationers not only spent less but also shaved off nights—now an average stay is 5.9 nights, compared to 9.3 a decade earlier. Forget “slow travel,” it’s in and out faster than a gyros on payday.
Greece’s cash boost was aided by the euro crisis (as local industries struggled, tourism soared), some significant price-slashing, and even tourists fleeing North Africa during the so-called Arab Spring. And yet, even when visitor counts rebounded after the pandemic, inflation gobbled up real profits. Sure, the numbers look good at first glance: 21.6 billion euros in 2024—but as a slice of GDP, the gains lost flavor against the pre-pandemic years.
The rest of Southern Europe also joined the party. Portugal, Croatia, Cyprus, and Spain all saw significant increases in tourism’s contribution to GDP, aided by similar economic challenges and competitive pricing. The fun doesn’t stop: as incomes rise around the world, more people chase “experiences,” but are quicker to cut their stays short and hunt for deals.
Hotel construction entered turbo mode, with a 23% jump in the number of units over the last 20 years. Short-term rentals also surged ahead, increasing by nearly 25% from 2022 and reaching one million by 2024. The hotel scene got glitzier: four- and five-star options expanded, while low-end hotels faded out. Still, most rooms cluster in small and medium-sized buildings, especially in rural areas, even as big-city and town shares are gradually on the rise. Vacation rentals, of course, have lower occupancy rates (30%) compared to hotels (56%), and encourage ever shorter stays.
- Visitors arrive in record numbers but spend less and depart sooner.
- Vacation rentals distort real estate markets, push out residents, and fill the countryside with concrete.
- Short-term profits come fast, ruin lasts longer—especially for beaches and villages with little else for income.
10 (Probably Ignored) Steps Toward Sustainable Tourism
The study cautions against the idea that Greece can overhaul its tourism model overnight. Real change means upsetting everyone, cashing in on business as usual, and asking politicians to care about something in five years instead of right now. Here’s the “to-do list” if Greece wants tourists who splash out—and leave the scenery as pretty as they found it:
- Enforce building codes. Bulldoze illegal resorts, say no to “creative” new builds outside planning lines.
- Place hotels and restaurants where they belong. Either push out rule-breakers or bribe them to move.
- Focus on higher-end hotels. Let the five-star crowd lead and help upgrade old spots.
- Invest in good roads, digital connections, and solid utilities. Don’t forget cultural sites, museums, or even ski resorts.
- Make cities, villages, and landscapes pleasant for locals. Happy locals mean happy tourists.
- Train tourism staff to deliver standout service—which pays back in better wages, too.
- Promote alternative tourism for actual value—think health, religion, farming, or off-season city trips.
- Help businesses get green and digital (and skip “fake” eco-moves). Recycling and energy conservation should be a reality.
- Limit short-term rentals to actual “sharing.” Airbnb landlords who have gone pro should play by the proper rules, pay real taxes, and stop pushing out locals.
- Plan ahead for hotter summers, from picking better building sites to revamping old properties for energy savings.
Mass tourism at this scale erodes Greece’s scenery and livability. The locals watch their towns morph into theme parks, while profits drift overseas or into the pockets of a handful of landlords. Long-term value means more than quick cash—without real investment in sustainable tourism, even the donkeys on Santorini will lose patience.
Greece’s current tourism path hands out easy money to some while making quality, culture, and local life the punchline. Boosting the average spend per visitor and ditching the “more is better” attitude won’t just keep Greece beautiful, it might even mean fewer sunburnt tourists waiting in line for the same selfie spot year after year. Let’s see if anyone in charge ever reads the memo.
