Santorini seeks year-round tourism by promoting gastronomy, wine and culture

Santorini is considered the most popular Greek island worldwide. Its distinctive volcanic caldera, whitewashed houses and sunsets in Oia consistently place it among the top choices for international travellers. However, over the past two years local hoteliers have been complaining that their hotels are not filling up with tourists."After the Covid pandemic we had intense tourist activity on our island, but because of some unrelated events, one was the seismic activity on the neighbouring islands and later on the war in the Gulf, we experienced a drop in tourism," hotel owner Thomas Giannis tells Euronews. "For me personally it was around 30 to 40%."The biggest decline was recorded in arrivals of tourists from the United States and, of course, from Israel. The former in particular, who tend to spend a lot of money in the destinations they visit and are therefore especially sought after by people working in tourism, book their holiday packages up until early spring, in other words during the periods that coincided with the seismic activity events of 2025 and the start of the war with Iran this year.Greece may have been far from the centre of operations, but this is not immediately obvious to the average American planning a holiday.Despite the downturn, the situation improved after the summer, according to Thira Mayor Nikos Zorzos.