‘Athens cannot operate as a giant hotel’: mayor vows to rescue capital from overtourism | Greece

In the heart of ancient Athens, in the narrow streets and around archaeological sites, groups of visitors seem to be hiding behind tour guides everywhere.

At other times, authorities would welcome such scenes. But the start of the tourist season puts much of the city’s historic center at risk of “oversaturation”, according to socialist mayor Haris Doukas, who is determined to make the capital’s busy city center available to his citizens. He believes that entire neighborhoods are in danger of losing their originality due to uncontrolled tourism development.

“Athens cannot operate as if it were a giant hotel,” he said in an interview. “Restrictions and rules are needed. Cities also need to have a say in development.”

More than 8 million people visited Athens last year; This was a record figure for a metropolis that until recently was considered the haunt of the Greek islands. For short-term rentals alone, overnight stays in the popular Plaka area beneath the Acropolis have more than doubled since 2018, according to a recent study commissioned by the municipality.

At the city’s neo-classical town hall, officials say time is of the essence to ensure Athens does not become a victim of its own success. Warning signs are everywhere: from rising property rents pricing out locals to overstretched infrastructure collapsing under the pressure.

“The whole of Athens is being dug up so we can cope,” said Doukas, who was a professor of climate energy before moving to local government. “We’re building electrical infrastructure, water systems, new drainage, 5G networks. The pressure is huge when you have nearly 700,000 residents and 8 million visitors.” “More staff, more equipment, more machinery” were deployed every month to meet the challenges.

Doukas took office in 2024 after unexpectedly coasting to victory with the support of the main opposition Pasok party, promising to “green” the region seen as the continent’s hottest capital. Under his watch, an estimated 3,855 trees were planted in the historic center of the 15-square-mile (39-square-mile) municipality.

But as Athens’ appeal grew, the mayor found himself butting heads with forces he directly blamed for “uncontrolled development” in major tourist hotspots. Doukas has his eye on B.C. It has its sights set on real estate investors and entrepreneurs, as well as construction companies determined to build multi-storey buildings at the foot of the 5th-century Acropolis. It also targets the proliferation of mostly unlicensed rooftop bars and eateries.

The conflict escalated further this week when Doukas told the Guardian he would use a tourism land use bill currently being debated to call for a blanket ban on new business activity in the city’s historic centre.

“We will stop all tourist investment in Plaka, which I have undertaken to save. There is no more space. Not for short-term rentals, not for serviced apartments, not for hotels or any other tourist use. The area is oversaturated,” he said. “We want to say ‘enough is enough’ with a bill included in the law.” He said investors should turn to other “less crowded” parts of the capital.

The mayor also floated the idea of ​​freezing construction permits for new hotels. This would follow a similar ban by the centre-right government restricting short-term rentals in neighborhoods overlooking the Acropolis.

This week, it surprisingly received support from an unexpected quarter. At an event promoting the capital on Tuesday, Evgenios Vassilikos, president of the powerful hotels association, also raised the possibility of caps on hotel construction, citing the example of Barcelona, ​​which has not issued new hotel licenses since 2017. “We don’t need to reinvent the wheel,” the hotelier said, adding that it was time to seriously think about where the capital’s tourism industry wants to be in 10 or 15 years.

The mayor said: “I cannot be the only person who says this while the entire center of Athens is turning into a hotel zone. Now the President of the Hoteliers Association has stepped in and the discussion has officially begun. It cannot be Athens.” [another] Barcelona.”

Doukas is clearly encouraged by the fact that his left-wing counterpart in Barcelona, ​​Jaume Collboni, recently announced a complete ban on short-term rentals from November 2028, when permits for more than 10,000 apartments will be canceled in a bid to make the city more liveable for its residents. Both Athens and Barcelona are among 15 cities whose mayors have joined the European housing action plan, which calls on the EU to take bold initiatives to address the crisis.

Like Collboni, Doukas identified access to affordable housing, which is impossible for many due to short-term rent pressure, as the municipality’s biggest challenge.

“We have set up a social housing office to identify buildings and flats that we can renovate with EU funds,” he said. “We want to encourage young couples to stay in the centre. While other cities are moving towards cement and skyscrapers, we are moving in a completely different direction, and that includes demolishing buildings to create public space for parks and playgrounds. Athens is for its people. Not for those who just want to exploit it.”