Overtourism and spatial planning in Greece : Challenges

Abstract

The recovery of tourism following the pandemic resurfaced the challenges of the tourism sector. There is a worldwide dispute about whether overtourism exists or is the result of inadequate tourism planning and management. The most common consequences are the exhaustion of resources, (over)crowding of tourists, popular discontent, displacement of residents, the transformation of the neighborhoods’ character, changing land uses to satisfy tourism demand, land, and public space exploitation, sharing economies, overloaded infrastructure, etc. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the issue of overtourism via a spatial planning approach. Specifically, the spatial planning tools and policies applied in Greece if any as a response to tourism over-crowding will be presented and analyzed. The upper aim is to finally answer if the symptoms are due to overtourism or tourism mismanagement.

Keywords: planning, tourism, overtourism, policies, management