Greece is on track to match record tourism arrivals this summer, but many Greeks are staying home, squeezed by rising prices and stagnant wages that have put even modest holidays out of reach.
On a recent August morning, 62-year-old Diamantoula Vassiliou took a four-hour bus trip with a coupon to Avlaki beach, north of Athens, carrying homemade food in a cooler. “We come here because there’s no money,” she said. Week-long vacations have been replaced by day trips for her family for the past four years.
Tourism is vital to Greece, generating about 12% of gross domestic product. Foreign arrivals are projected to be up to four times the country’s 10 million population, matching 2024 figures. But as luxury resorts crowd out cheaper accommodation, many Greeks say they are priced out.
European Union data show nearly half of Greeks could not afford a one-week holiday last year, the second-highest rate in the bloc after Romania. That compares with about one in three Italians and one in five French.
A six-day island trip for a family of four costs around 3,500 euros ($4,070), while the average monthly income is just over 1,000 euros ($1,160), according to the Consumer Protection Institute. “You have to live on the rest – and that’s poverty,” said the group’s head, Giorgos Lehouritis.
Some Greeks are reviving habits from the 1980s: bringing their own umbrellas, packing food, and using buses instead of ferries or flights. “The money I make in the summer has to keep me going in the months when there isn’t much work,” said Iosif Solanakis, who rents out an electric buggy near the Acropolis. “I only get to the sea whenever I can grab a few hours off.”
Labor unions have coined the term “holiday poverty” to describe the widening gap between booming tourism and residents left on the sidelines – a trend spreading across southern Europe as costs rise.