ATHENS – A ceaseless push for development on islands and coasts – while the government said it wants to stop the takeover of public beaches – is bringing so many tourists that the sector has become unmanageable, Greece’s Ombudsman said.

A report from the office of the agency’s chief, Andreas Pottakis, said that Greece needs to rein in the construction that the New Democracy government is seeking almost everywhere in luring investors, especially luxury resorts.

While that’s bringing in critical monies – tourism in 2023 brought in a record 20.5 billion euros ($22 billion) in 2023, and could exceed that in 2024 – it’s also seen island infrastructure overwhelmed and businesses taking up beaches.

A revolt against beach takeovers on some Greek islands led the government to say it would be managed, even issuing a phone app to report businesses taking over more than the space allowed by leases – itself unconstitutional.

But there’s been few reports of enforcement against beach businesses exceeding their leases and none about luxury resorts, including some that have blocked off public beaches to make them private and unlawfully charge admission for entry.

Greece had more than 33 million foreign arrivals in 2023, also driving up prices – even on ferry boats – so much that many Greeks can’t vacation in their own country and seeing everything from water to sewage systems affected on some islands.

“Our country’s economy relies heavily on tourism, which makes the need to manage it in a sustainable way even more urgent,” the report said. Greece must not “exhaust its potential, wasting it and making our tourist destinations unattractive over time,” it added, said Reuters.

Popular islands are most at risk, such as Santorini – permanent population 15,550 – which gets more than 5.5 million visitors annually, bringing in 1 billion euros ($1 billion) in revenues – islanders unhappy that almost no one came during the COVID-19 pandemic now upset that too many are coming.

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“In Santorini, even tourists complain about the great number of tourists,” the report said, people packed elbow-to-elbow on hillside sites jockeying for photos and a look at the sunset, crammed together.

About 800 vessels, carrying 1.3 million tourists, visited the vacation destination last year, according to the Hellenic Ports Association. “There are people spending a lot of money to be on Santorini and they don’t want the island to be swamped,” Mitsotakis told Bloomberg. “The island can’t afford it, even in terms of security,” he said.

The report called for greater regulation to reduce coastal construction and slow the felling of forests which has led to flooding, and said water resources should be protected because they’re being used for swimming pools and water parks..

“Tourism is a field where the lack of vision and strategy emerges with particular intensity. The exercise of a clear tourism governance is an immense need,” the report said, the government saying it’s aware of the problem but wants more visitors.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said, however, his government is looking at putting more restrictions on cruise ships visiting islands – there are limits on Santorini – to try to deal with the excess.

“I think we’ll do it next year,” Mitsotakis told the Bloomberg financial news agency in an interview, speaking about the decision to cap cruise ship visits. The new rules could see the total number of island berths restricted, or a bidding process introduced for slots, he said.

That’s after the Chinese management firm COSCO, which runs the port of Piraeus, made renovations to allow for more and bigger cruise ships to dock there, but even massive liners are jockeying for spots on Santorini and other islands.

The problem got so bad in 2023 a cap had to be put on the number of visitors daily visiting the Acropolis, which was overrun, the crowds added to by large cruise ships docking in Piraeus and tourists scrambling for Athens day trips to see sites.