Athens on Fodor’s ‘No’ List in 2024 Due to Overtourism

Although Athens has been ranked as one of the world’s leading 50 cities in 2024, International travel guide Fodor’s has included it in its list of places to avoid this year and the reason is overtourism.

 “The ‘No’ List isn’t a hit piece. It’s not a round-up of spots we revile, but a declaration of places we revere. We love these destinations. And we know you love them, too. But our frenzied admiration and incessant need to experience them are not sustainable,” said Fodor’s editors who compiled the list.

Athens is one of nine destinations added to “Fodor’s ‘No’ List 2024” based on three main areas of tourist impact: overtourism, trash production, and water quality and sufficiency, which harm both the destinations and the local communities.

According to the report, excessive tourism and a lack of approved management plans are impacting the Acropolis and its ancient monuments and the leading to the loss of traditional ways of life in surrounding neighborhoods. Last year, a Hellenic Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen, and Merchants (GSEVEE) study found that Athens is at risk of gentrification with growing tourist flows leading to increasing property prices, skyrocketing rents and ‘forced’ displacement of residents and businesses while the city center becomes a quasi ‘theme park’ of sorts.

The Fodor’s report goes on to add that “there’s fear that if the surge of visitors continues unchecked, most Athenian boroughs will culturally erode and physically disappear”.

Athens, Greece.

The GSEVEE study published in March in GTPHeadlines, pointed to the urgent need for the municipality of Athens to formulate and implement a full-scope policy that will set the terms and conditions for business activity in the city center and in this way safeguard the capital from gentrification.

Fodor’s adds that the Acropolis, an UNESCO World Heritage Site, and its monuments are receiving some 17,000 visitors daily. According to the World Heritage Watch, a non-governmental organization supporting UNESCO, the archaeological site is not implementing tourism control plans required by the UN World Heritage Convention, which Greece is a signatory of. A new “visitor zones” system announced last year will allow a daily limit of 20,000 visitors.

“All the historic sites of Athens may concern World Heritage Watch, but for the moment, the Acropolis is the focus of attention because of the problems rising from excessive tourism and the radical measures taken without a management plan demanded for a UNESCO World Heritage Monument,” said Tasos Tanoulas, architect, preservationist, and president of the Greek National Committee for the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), the official technical advisor of UNESCO.

Tanoulas is referring to the culture ministry’s decision to cement sections of the site to create special paths which enable access to the monuments of for people with disabilities or mobility issues, which he said, “circumvented the Greek legal frameworks and international standard-setting instruments concerning the preservation of cultural heritage monuments”. In addition, he said, the pathway failed to alleviate congestion.

A new pathway at the Acropolis with the Propylaea in the background.

A second problem cited by the report is the impact of the hordes of tourists to Athens is Plaka, which is among the more traditional neighborhoods in Athens losing its charm due to the proliferation of Airbnbs and spatial planning land use violations to create restaurants and bars.

And lastly, the crowds of travels arriving in Athens on cruise ships. According to an alternative travel agent, cruise ships are causing the biggest crowd problem on the Acropolis.

Last November, Greek tourism professionals argued during a conference in Thessaloniki 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.

Other destinations on the Fodor’s ‘No’ List 2024 include Venice, Italy (overtourism), Mount Fuji, Japan; San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, California; Ha Long Bay, Vietnam; and the Atacama Desert (trash production), Chile; Lake Superior, US; the Ganges River, India; and Koh Samui, Thailand (water quality and sufficiency).

The aim of the list, said Fodor’s editors, is to “encourage readers to find new ways to interact with some of the world’s most iconic attractions”.