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Meropi Kyriacou Honored as TNH Educator of the Year
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
ATHENS – In a balancing to bring in revenues without further ruining the reason why people come, Greece is looking to limit overtourism in popular areas by capping cruise ship arrivals and prevent homes and apartments turned into short-term rentals by foreign investors getting Golden Visas.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced the measures during his policy speech at the Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF) where he announced a long line of benefits to young families and pensioners.
He also used the occasion to note concern about the Golden Visa recipients who get Greek passports by buying enough property having turned those into rentals on platforms such as Airbnb, drying up supply and driving up rents and home prices.
He also said his government will curb cruise ships going to islands such as Santorini that have been overwhelmed and see their infrastructure, including water supplies, being drastically affected.
He said a tax related to the climate change crisis on accommodations would be increased, reported the Bloomberg financial news agency, adding that cruise ship passengers arriving at Greek ports will pay a fee.
It wasn’t said who will get the money although Santorini Mayor Nikos Zorzos said he wouldn’t support the increase unless the money goes to the municipality, the island this summer seeing as many as 17,000 cruise ship passengers in one day.
Greece received a record 36.1 million visitors in 2023, while arrivals rose 16 percent to 11.6 million in the first half of 2024, according to the latest data from the Bank of Greece, the news agency said, tourism being the biggest revenue engine.
In an interview with Bloomberg in June, he announced plans to restrict cruise ships visiting the country’s most popular islands from 2025, no explanation why it hadn’t been done earlier with all indicators showing a problem.
The government will ban any new short-term leasing for at least one year in three main parts of Athens, Mitsotakis said. Property owners who change leases from short-term to long-term won’t have to pay rental tax for three years, as will owners who decide to rent their homes instead of keeping them off the market, he said.
Holiday rentals increased an annual average of 28 percent from 2018-13 while short-term rentals soared and hotels said they’re having trouble competing, the report noted about the dilemma.
