Imagine that Inis Óirr, Cape Clear, Sherkin or Inishturk already had 13 hotels, and planning applications had been lodged for another 18 new builds, including three five-star resorts. That’s the situation in Ano Koufonisi, a Greek island of the same size – less than 6sq km – with a population of 366.
Tourism development is so extensive that it has given rise to a new word, “overtourism”: a situation where the host country cannot sustain the weight of the product. Greece is suffering from overtourism, the victim of its own success – or, rather, the victim of its own sunshine.
There is a detectable gap between, on one side, government and industry policy on tourism and foreign investment and, on another, the concern of scientists, sociologists and, in particular, island-dwellers regarding planning and development and their social and environmental impact.
In previous columns I have quoted the Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s statement about the (at present) pristine area in Corfu of Erimitis, where a hotel development is threatened. He referred to the area as a “waste of space” because it does not generate wealth.
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A nearby area threatened with a marina, which also has the support of the prime minister, is the tranquil bay of Imerolia. The knock-on environmental effect on local inhabitants, traffic and the neighbouring fish farm is unimaginable.
Scientists warn of the dangers to agriculture, forestry and wine-growing. The strain on infrastructure, water supply and waste management is a big factor in what at peak periods amounts to a social and environmental crisis. The fact remains that, although tourism is absolutely vital to the Greek economy, there is no overall national strategy for tourism. The Greek Tourism Confederation has itself called for a national spatial plan to prioritise development, but at the same time it has assured the government that Greece is “capable of resilient growth in tourism”.
On Thursday and Friday, the Ionian University in Corfu is hosting an academic conference with just such a title: Towards Resilient Destinations. “Resilient” is a buzzword, like “outreach”, and what it means is anyone’s guess. It can mean “the capacity to withstand”, or “recover”, or “to be elastic”.
The title of the conference is not original - “resilience” has been used in connection with studies on wine production, city planning and even bamboo forestry. The EU ran a recovery and resilience facility in the post-Covid years. While the event is under the aegis of a Greek university, the overall academic thrust seems to come from universities in the UK, and, like its buzzword title, applicable to almost any locale.
It suggests tourists moving towards a location, so there can be no doubt that this event focuses on places that are suffering from overtourism, and concern for how they might survive it.
Despite several papers referring to projects in the Ionian Islands, there is not a single mention of Erimitis or Imerolia in the preliminary conference programme. It is difficult to see how a paper on Hybrid Yogurts for Sustainable Nutrition (I’m not kidding) will help a crowded Greek island to be more resilient.
As this is an academic event, there is no opportunity for “real” people – those whose quality of life is affected by overtourism – to tell the professors what it is like to see your environment eroded by what is predominantly foreign capital. Farmers, fishermen, craftworkers, winemakers or those who run a modest B&B could write a very different narrative from what a desk-bound academic could describe.
Corfu, where I live, is one of the least resilient islands. Tourism here generates €1 billion, one third of the island’s entire income, but ribbon development along the east and north coasts and further inland has destroyed almost its entire scenic contours. Conference participants can see this for themselves on their trip up the coast by traditional caïque as far as the threatened Erimitis.
Given the extent of building and the turning of the island’s population towards the profit motive, the time for resilience is long gone. One could say the same about islands such as Milos, Santorini, Mykonos, Serifos, Naxos or Patmos.
However, it is not the physical deterioration of the environment nor the strain on infrastructure that present the greatest challenge, but the ethical infrastructure that is lacking in the approach to what appears to be an unstoppable phenomenon. The impetus to make Greece more relevant as a modern society – in the absence of significant manufacturing or financial services – denies such considerations.
An island’s attraction is its isolation, yet the transformation of small islands like Koufonisi into tourism destinations is erasing their very character and globalising the experience.
Another buzzword is “authentic”. Ironically, ultra-modern hotels are offering “authentic Greek hospitality”. In a resort hotel here in Corfu I once saw a notice reminding the inmates ‘Tonight is Mexican Night’. What is the point of offering “authentic” to tourists who can’t tell their Aarhus from their Bilbao?
