A major report on the Greek tourism industry, Sustainable Tourism Development, has spelt out in unequivocal terms that, unless fundamental changes are made to both the character of the tourism product and its infrastructure, the industry, which contributes approximately 30 per cent of Greek GDP, will collapse within 10 years, taking the national economy with it.
The surprising aspect of this report, and perhaps an encouraging sign, is that it comes from the office of the Greek ombudsman, whose remit is to mediate between state agencies and the ordinary citizen. The report, published on June 13th, bears witness to the impact on local communities of what it calls “lack of vision and strategy” in uncontrolled tourism.
In Corfu, where I live, residents of the old city have been asking recently “Are we part of a living city or in a museum?” and parallels are being drawn with Venice, where the same demoralising sense is evident of living inside a showcase for the benefit of millions of tourists.
The ombudsman’s principal recommendations refer to the impact of tourism on infrastructure such as the water supply, coastal areas, waste management and over-building, especially the uncontrolled and illegal type. The main thrust of the report is that ordinary citizens and local communities must be consulted in order to draw a sustainable model for the future of this absolutely vital industry. The needs of “civil society” must be balanced against “the real economic benefit” of tourism.
Other worrying aspects of uncontrolled tourism, according to the ombudsman, include the lack of any calculation of what a particular area of interest can bear in terms of accommodation and movement of tourists. The island of Santorini (population 15,500) last year hosted 5.5 million visitors, twice as many as in 2012. The report pointed out that “even the tourists are complaining”. Santorini contributed €1 billion to the national exchequer, receiving little in return.
Coming a few weeks after the minister of tourism had announced a new controversial policy for spatial planning, the ombudsman’s report argues for a defined legal framework to prevent the kind of abuses of planning laws rampant throughout Greece, but particularly in tourist hotspots such as Mykonos. According to the report, 70 per cent of Greece is without any urban planning, and yet there are 260 local urban planning schemes pending.
The ombudsman notes that such a policy has been on the starting grid for the past seven years, and remains there. It is part of the lip service paid to the philosophy and ethics of tourism development, which I have observed since coming to live here more than 20 years ago. It’s always promised, never implemented.
Acknowledging the country’s inevitable need for income from tourism, the report argues for a “sustainable” model for the sector, citing “lack of vision and strategy” in policy formation. “Tourism is a field where the exercise of a clear tourism governance is an immediate need”.
The ombudsman warns not only that Greek citizens are at risk from the dangers to water, environmental protection and deforestation, but that tourism itself will “exhaust its potential” and become “unattractive over time”. One aspect, which is presumably outside the ombudsman’s remit, is climate change, which on its own is threatening to revolutionise an industry that relies on months of uninterrupted sunshine as one of its main “products”. This affects not only beaches, but areas of archaeological interest, as we saw last year and this, with the Acropolis closed during hours of unbearable heat.
Whether by accident or design, within three days of the ombudsman’s report, the government announced a new plan to answer many of these warnings. The document was open for discussion for no more than a week. That in itself suggests disregard at government level for the ombudsman’s findings and recommendations.
In addition to proposing to address the spatial planning issues and control of unlicensed building, the government’s document includes what I can only call “old chestnuts” of “special interest tourism products”. Why “old chestnuts”? Because we have heard it all before. Again and again, successive governments, ministers of tourism and the National Tourism Organisation have paid lip service to such niche markets, including spas, wine festivals, fishing, skiing, scuba diving, literary and film festivals, to be followed by a resounding silence, while such cottage-style industries strive with little or no support from the state.
Reading between the lines, and taking into account what appears to be the government’s hasty response, it is clear the ombudsman is saying “This rampant destruction of our physical and historic heritage, due to state indifference to profiteering, will not only damage our citizens’ quality of life irreparably but will also ruin our main market and sink the economy”.
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