The Greek island was once a “model of co-existence” but has been left with “nothing but bars” as tourism has sucked the life out of it, a local has claimed
A stunning Greek island once “teeming with children and shops” has been left with nothing but bars due to tourism, according to a local resident.
Iosif Stefanou, an architect, urban planner and professor at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), has spent decades working to preserve traditional Cycladic architecture on Syros, and shared his concerns with Greek publication ekathimerini.com about how the tourist industry has drained the area of its character.
Speaking to the publication during a stroll through the neighbourhood, Stefanou lamented that whilst the island’s capital Ermoupoli had previously been “self-sufficient”, it now “only has bars — in summer, it’s crowded with people; in winter, it’s dead”..
The academic previously viewed the island as “a model of co-existence. A mother would hear her neighbor’s baby crying and would run there first”, but properties now sit empty for months whilst their proprietors are elsewhere, he said.
“Now most houses are closed for most of the year because they’ve been bought by foreigners or Athenians,” Stefanou explained, according to the Express.
“Fortunately, most of them respected and saved the houses. Many of the locals think about easy profit, which is why only bars have sprung up recently. They don’t understand they’re cutting the branch they’re sitting on. They see Mykonos on the horizon and envy it, but they don’t learn from its current state.”
Local music teacher, Aristos Vamvakousis, told the outlet: “We are fighting, and as long as such efforts exist, Syros won’t become just a tourist destination.”
In addition to his school, he said “there are many theatre groups, dance groups, sports clubs, and groups of people who fight to provide variety and stimuli during the months outside the summer season. That’s what saves us, life in the winter.”
Vamvakousis expressed concern that graduates from his music school struggle to find places to play traditional music, with many rembetiko venues now shut.
“After October, you can hardly find a taverna to eat in,” he revealed to the outlet. “The reason is that catering businesses are now owned – after the Covid pandemic – by non-locals who don’t care about keeping the shops open during the difficult months.Syros major Alexandros Athanasiou has been contacted for comment.Popular Greek holiday spots like Mykonos and Santorini are among the most impacted by overtourism in the country.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis made a commitment in June to address overcrowding and manage the number of visitors on the islands, including limiting the number of cruise ships allowed to dock.
Mr Mitsotakis acknowledged that the Cycladic Islands were “clearly suffering”, amid complaints from locals about the effect on their daily lives and the cost of living, according to Bloomberg reports.
The Greek Prime Minister has highlighted Santorini as the “most sensitive” to overcrowding, with around 800 cruise ships docking last year, closely followed by Mykonos with 750 in 2023.
In April last year, Athens was rocked by furious protests, with demonstrators reportedly shouting: “They are taking our houses while they live in the Maldives”.
Anna Theodorakis, a local resident, told France24 about being forced out of her home in the Metaxourgio neighbourhood of Athens, stating: “I think the answer is to go in the streets and block everything and just not do something because people are losing their homes. It is very depressing.”
Ms Theodorakis criticised the surge of Airbnbs in the city for “wiping out the traditional places”, expressing that she felt like “a foreigner in my own country”.
Meanwhile, Dimitri, a property developer converting a former warehouse into Airbnbs, conceded that excessive tourism was causing harm to Athens.