Anti—tourist protests have spread from Spain (details here) to another country popular among Russians – Greece. So, the residents of Athens are outraged by the crowds of tourists who block the streets and create noise. On the walls of the city there were recommendation inscriptions “Tourists, go home” and “No tourists, no hipsters”, otherwise it will be worse.
As the Mirror edition clarified, the Greeks see the reason for the rise in real estate prices and noise in the massive influx of vacationers and the spread of rental housing through the Airbnb platform and other similar services. It is known that the Athenian Acropolis and the ancient city of Plaka were symbolically chosen as the place of protests.
To understand the volume of tourist traffic, here are the data: more than 33 million tourists visited Greece last year. Such a large number of people wishing to see Greece began to annoy the locals, they began to complain about overpopulation and violation of their usual way of life. “Tourists are enjoying your stay at the European cemetery,” reads one of the graffiti.
So, the publication quoted a comment by local resident Anna Theodorakis, who was forced to leave her home in the Metaxurgio area due to harassment: “I think the answer is to go out on the streets and block everything and just do nothing, because people are losing their homes.” At the same time, a local developer noted that 80% of the area was occupied by the Airbnbs site, and not by the Greeks themselves: “Tourists who come here want to see Greek culture, so if Greeks no longer live here, tourists will not want to come.”
The situation is stalemate. Greece is heavily dependent on tourism, which accounted for a fifth of its GDP in 2022. However, due to the short-term rental of housing for tourists, housing for local residents has become almost inaccessible. For example, more than 40% of disposable income in Greece is spent on housing – this is higher than in any other European country. It is for this reason that seven out of ten Greeks under the age of 34 still live with their parents – they cannot afford a separate property.
And last year, 33.4 million tourists visited Athens, which caused an even greater burden on the city’s infrastructure. The problems of excessive tourism in the capital are not new. The city was listed as “not allowed to leave” by the Foders publication, which claimed that Athens is experiencing erosion and is constantly being damaged due to uncontrolled tourism. In this sense, the Acropolis, the largest tourist attraction in Greece, attracts special attention of vacationers. About 17,000 people visit this place every day – it is not surprising that criticism is constantly being heard about the crowds who crowd there in the heat.
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