As of this year, Santorini will only cater to 8,000 visitors per day in an effort to reduce congestion on the island during high season.
The popular Cycladic destination hosts thousands of new tourists every day, something that is not only causing issues in terms of housing but also at the port.
Santorini is a main stop for several cruise ships and yachts cruising the Aegean or the Mediterranean with sometimes six ships having to stop at the island simultaneously.
The municipality of the island made the decision to cut down visitor intake in order to up the quality of the experience on the island which had reportedly been deteriorating over the last five years.
The amount of daily arrivals in 2017 was 12,000 people or more in 2017, and in previous years.
“Four hundred and thirty-nine cruise vessels have registered for 2018, compared to 409 that visited in 2017. There have already been 451 vessel registrations for next year,” president of the port fund, Ilias Pelekis told Kathimerini.
“If the companies themselves fail to modify the visiting times in an acceptable fashion, we will arbitrarily carry out the modifications ourselves. In some cases we have also requested changes to the times of disembarking so that there is a minimum of an hour’s gap between them and ideally to have some in the morning and others in the afternoon,” he added.
The Union of Cruise Ship Owners and Associated Members (EEKFN), has also agreed to support the effort.
