Weeks after being shaken by Thousands of earthquakes mainly on a small scaleThe island of Santorini, the jewel of the crown of the tourism sector of Greece, is determined to return to business as usual – even if the phenomenon of the earthquake remains a mystery.
The island dependent on tourism, which had experienced a strong return after the coronavirus pandemic, counts on it.
The first two cruise ships of the season arrived in the last two Sundays in March, and More than 40 are due this monthThe start of a year in which the union of cruise ships predicted a 10% increase in cruising visitors compared to last year.
But hoteliers are still waiting for a slower year, with reservations about 30% compared to 2024.
“Things have woken up in the past two weeks,” said Alexis Yannoulatos, who heads the Blue Dolphins Hotel and the great view of Santorini’s Caldera, the edge of an old volcano that has given the island its unique shape, its multicolored beaches and its rocky formations. But he said that Aril was probably a “miserable” month for tourism income.
Mr. Yannoulatos, who welcomed visitors to South Korea at the height of the earthquake crisis in mid-February, said that the occupation of his hotels was 30% for April, with reserves for May and the summer months which should reach around 50%.
Maria Manousoudaki, who has the Alti Suites on the Falaise side in the southwest of the island, said that reservations “came to dribes and terpliers” for the next two months, but that she would open in full this week, with visitors from Great Britain, France and Israel and the United States.
The island, which has a population of 15,500 inhabitants and generally welcomes more than three million visitors per year, had previously worried about over-tourism, and even this week, the authorities launching the tourism campaign of Santorini insisted on the importance of “sustainable” tourism. As of June 1, visitors to cruising ships must pay a load of 20 euros, around $ 21.50, a measure approved last year in Reduce excessive crowd tension on the island.
But a few weeks ago, thousands of earthquakes shook the island, sometimes every few minutes, sending most of the residents fleeing. Authorities closed schools and emergency services deployed in the regionAnd the experts rushed to interpret the tremors, which culminated with a 5.3 coarse temblor on February 10.
While the earthquakes were at the end of February and early March, the residents returned, the schools reopened and the hoteliers resumed renovations in preparation for Easter and summer visitors. Now, most of the tremors are lower than magnitude 3, essentially imperceptible and life on the island returns to normal.
However, the phenomenon of the earthquake remains unexplained.
“We have still not arrived at the conclusion of the causes,” said the director of the Research of the Athanassios National Observatory, the director of the National Observatory of Athens, this week.
Certain cliff zones that are prone to landslides will remain out of limits until May 15, while experts in the earthquake are looking for ways to minimize risks, the mayor Nikos Zorzos said on Tuesday at the launch of the island’s tourist campaign at the Acropolis museum in Athens.
“There will be a little numbness at the start, but the season has opened-we are ready,” he insisted.
The Minister of Tourism of Greece, Olga Kefalogianni, told the event that Santorini “returned to normality” and that “remains a safe and welcoming destination”, adding that the security of residents and visitors “is our absolute priority”.
The earthquake crisis has also affected the island’s seasonal workforce, the tremors adding long-standing concerns for workers during the long hours necessary for summer stations and a lack of social benefits such as health insurance, said Giorgos Diamantopoulos, the secretary general of the association of merchants and Santorini professionals.
Recruitment has already started for the 25,000 seasonal workers on which the island’s tourism sector is based, he said, adding that hires so far have come from Albania, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and the Philippines. Statistics from the Ministry of Labor showed that a little more than 2,600 workers were hired in March.
In the meantime, scientists try to understand the recent earthquakes.
Researchers use seismic monitors and remote -controlled submarine vehicles to study the tremors and volcanoes in the region – although they point out that no major rash is expected, the last having taken place 3,500 years ago.
And Monday evening, foreign scientists joined their Greek counterparts by video link for a discussion in Athens to analyze the tremors and a slight volcanic activity using artificial intelligence. They agreed on one thing: the sequence of the earthquake was unprecedented and remarkable.
Regarding the prospects of a strong earthquake, Mr. Ganas said that the data suggests that it was unlikely, even if the region has the potential of a temblor up to a magnitude of 7.1.
The island’s hoteliers are preparing for geological and financial disorders, although Ms. Manousoudaki said that she was more worried about monetary losses than a possible major earthquake, given the resilience of Santorini buildings.
“It is true that many buildings on Caldeira cling mainly to the cliffs,” she said. “But they are built to withstand earthquakes,” she added. “I feel more security here than at Athens.”