“Nowhere else in the EU is over-tourism as intense as on the Greek islands of the South Aegean”, writes tagesschau, citing Eurostat data published by the German Federal Statistical Office, as reported by Deutsche Welle.

“In the region with islands such as Santorini and Mykonos, an average of 110 overnight stays per inhabitant were recorded in 2022 – no other region could come close to such a ratio.

On the Ionian islands, such as Corfu, the corresponding figure was 81 nights per inhabitant, while on the Croatian Adriatic coast it was 66. By comparison, in the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania region, the region in Germany with the highest tourism, only 18 overnight stays per inhabitant were recorded.

Of course, as the German website notes, ‘in absolute terms, the Canary Islands region in Spain takes the top spot, with 89.3 million overnight stays – an average of around 245,000 people per day on one of the islands’.

According to Eurostat data, “for 2022 and among the EU countries, Greece was the country in which the accommodation sector had the largest share of gross value added with 7.1%. It was followed by Croatia, Portugal and Spain”. The corresponding figure for Germany is put at 1.4%, which is well below the EU average of 2.5%.

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As ZEIT Online also points out with regard to over-tourism, “despite the importance of tourism for the economy, there are many holiday regions across Europe that are experiencing the effects of mass tourism. In the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands in particular, there have recently been demonstrations by local residents, who are concerned about, among other things, rising prices in the housing market.”