‘Greece Not Suffering from Overtourism’, Say Tourism Professionals

Overtourism and the impact of climate change on the sector were the focus of an event organized during the 38th Philoxenia International Tourism Exhibition in Thessaloniki last weekend.

Titled “In Search of Balance: Circular Economy – Overtourism – Climate Change”, the Philoxenia Forum 2023 event brought together tourism experts and academics who discussed issues already affecting many destinations worldwide.

Among others, Bournemouth University Professor Dimitrios Buhalis argued that Greece was not affected by overtourism, adding however that improved destination management, extending the tourism season, a ‘smart’ pricing policy and a real-time response to tourism flows were crucial.

“Governments seriously dealt with tourism for the first time during the Covid pandemic because suddenly entire sectors of the economy that relied on the hospitality industry were left without an income,” said Bouhalis, adding that ‘smart’ tourism requires that we use “tourism for Greece and not Greece for tourism”.

Dr. Evangelos Christou of the International University of Greece (coordinator); adviser to the Bulgarian Minister of Tourism, professor, Mariela Modeva; professor of the University of Bournemouth, England, Dimitrios Buhalis; Deputy Regional Governor of the Regional Unit of Thessaloniki, Voula Patoulidou; Executive Director of the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE), Alexandros Thanos; Head of Department of Monitoring and Development of Resources of the Organization of Cultural Resources Development, Angeliki Maragaki; and the Corporate Affairs Manager of Aegean Airlines, Marina Spyridaki. Photo source: Philoxenia

Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE) Executive Director Alexandros Thanos echoed Buhalis, adding that although Greece was not affected by overtourism, there were qualitative and quantitative imbalances. Indicatively, he said, five of the country’s 13 regions account for 90 percent of annual tourism revenues in a period of five months.

Also speaking on the issue, Marina Spyridaki, corporate affairs manager at AEGEAN, agreed that overtourism was not an issue in Greece, noting instead that the country suffers from poor destination management, lack of infrastructure and increasing seasonality.

Other issues addressed during the event included the problem of traffic which affects popular city destinations as well as the need to disperse tourist flows to the entire country through the development of alternative forms of tourism.

The Greek Travel Pages (GTP) was a communication sponsor for the Philoxenia expo.