It is not only the wildfire that has thrust Paros into the spotlight in recent days, testing the island during the height of the tourist season. Overdevelopment, denounced by residents and local bodies, is compounding the problem, and combined with inadequate public infrastructure, threatens to undermine the very tourism product that has propelled Paros to prominence in recent years.

A new five-star hotel occupying a large plot beside Marcello beach in Paroikia, the island’s port town, is close to completion and had been due to open this summer. The development includes 46 individual pools alongside two communal pools, one measuring nearly 700 square metres and the other 57 square metres. Although it promises high-end tourism, its scale has alarmed locals and triggered a backlash among residents of Paros.

The Traditional Settlement Association of Paroikia has pointed to the project, and more broadly to the steadily rising volume of tourist traffic and investment interest, describing it as “a catastrophe sweeping through our island, particularly over the past five years.” The association staged a protest over the investment in July.

The issue was also raised during the days of the wildfire by author Christos Georgousis, who sent a letter to the Prime Minister, also circulated to mayors across the Cyclades, urging them “to do everything possible from now on to save the Cycladic islands from the onslaught of wealth, extravagance and the general disregard and contempt for every law. An entire place has been uprooted on an island of a few square kilometres, and the appeal once exerted by this natural environment, so closely attuned to the Cyclades, has been lost forever.”

Last year saw a record in tourist visits to the island, with almost 970,000 arrivals by air and sea for the first time. Port passenger traffic reached 789,000 in 2025, up 8.6% from 726,000 in 2024, while Paros National Airport also recorded a smaller rise, to almost 181,000 arrivals from 177,000 the previous year.

At the same time, the number of five-star units on the island has more than doubled since before the pandemic, reflecting both the upgrading of the island’s tourism product and growing concern over construction.

According to figures from the Greek Hotel Chamber, Paros ended 2025 with 141 hotel units and 3,820 rooms in total, including 15 five-star units with 730 rooms and 22 four-star units with 907 rooms. In 2019, before the pandemic, the island had 137 hotel units in total, with just six five-star units and 360 rooms, and 19 four-star units with 850 rooms.

Related developments on Paros

In October 2025, Paros Municipal Council unanimously refused to grant water and sewerage connections to a separate planned five-star complex at Kolympithres, citing technical incapacity, a decision that has since been referred to the council’s full assembly for further review; the local water utility, DEYAP, has also declined to connect the Kolympithres project to the municipal network, citing an inability to meet its demand. Separately, a citizens’ group called the Paros Citizens’ Movement had planned a peaceful gathering at Trypiti beach on 19 July 2026 over commercial encroachment on public beaches, while an international campaign group, Friends of Paros & Antiparos, has formed to oppose the island’s rapid development, amid coverage in the Financial Times questioning whether Paros is following the trajectory of Mykonos and Santorini.