Residents of the Greek island of Mykonos have complained about the excessive popularity of the island among tourists, Report informs referring to The Guardian.
They believe that the popularity of bloggers and celebrities who come to the island for gourmet restaurants, champagne and boutiques, deprives the island of identity, and the infrastructure cannot cope with the flow of tourists.
Nikos Zouganelis, “born and bred” on the party island, has deliberately sought to do something new.
Zouganelis believes his beloved island has reached a tipping point. “We have gone astray,” he sighs dolefully after talk turns to the bulldozers, which may not be in sight around Rizes but which have gnawed into the land to make way for dwellings at record speed elsewhere. “Mistakes have been made. We have all contributed to them.”
The once dirt-poor island ignited the country’s tourism industry in the wake of its “discovery” in the 1950s – by travelers visiting Delos, the nearby island long regarded as the ancient Greek world’s most sacred place – but is now dealing with the consequences of overdevelopment.
“Our island is full, it has exceeded its limits,” says Marigoula Apostolou, president of the local folklore museum. “Our natural environment has been destroyed, our water and sewage infrastructure cannot cope, and that is before we even talk about the threat to our lifestyle by being branded a party isle.”
Mykonos, she said, was a lot more than “eclectic menus and nightlife”. “We have customs and traditions that should also be explored. Any further so-called development by foreign investors will not only pile on the pressure but lead to wholesale degradation.”
The tourist season is far from over, but already more than a million holidaymakers have passed through Mykonos. In July an estimated 220,000 visitors were recorded in a single week with at least 30,000 employees – three times the resident population – staffing restaurants, hotels and private villas.