How earthquakes did the impossible and made Santorini quiet again

Telegraph

7 days ago

As anyone who knows Santorini will tell you, a great indication of the island's busyness is the time it takes to drive the one bus-wide road leading from the ferry port to the top of the hill and the turn-off for its capital, Fira. Last year, at the height of summer, I sat in a boiling car for half an hour waiting for traffic to creep a few hundred yards. When I arrived there a few days ago, I raced along the near-empty road in five minutes.
There's no doubt Santorini is much quieter than usual – a side-effect, it would seem, of the earthquakes that rattled the island earlier this year deterring people from booking summer breaks. 'It's like the island used to be – much quieter and much nicer,' said Giorgos Karayiannis, manager of Astra Suites, a property with a caldera-edge swimming pool. 'They've also restricted the number of cruise ships, which makes a big difference.'
Tourism kickstarted on Santorini during the 1970s, when hoteliers began to buy up cave houses around its famous caldera and transform them into chic boutique accommodation. By the 1990s, most of the properties had been rebuilt and tourism was booming.
Karayiannis was in Santorini during the earthquakes earlier this year. Along with some 10,000 fellow inhabitants (close to half of the population), he left the island. 'We were worried because it had never happened like that: every few minutes an earthquake – it was like someone giving you a quick shove each time. But now it's stopped for months and I'm not worried at all,' he says.
Giorgos Alexandrou, owner of local tour and transfer company VIP Santorini, agrees: 'Santorini is one of the most carefully watched volcanoes in the world. Experts monitor it closely and volcanic eruptions don't just happen without warning.'
Andreas Manessis, who owns boutique hotel Casa Sunsha in Oia, confirmed that there was no structural damage to infrastructure or hospitality venues, and no reported injuries. 'Today, the island is fully operational – it's a rare moment of calm for such a globally loved destination.'
However, according to Adonis Pagonis, president of the local hotel association, arrivals to the Santorini are down by at least 25 per cent this year because travellers are still worried. Staff at some of the island's top hotels told me that they think it's nearer 40 per cent. 'The hotel is half full – that's unheard of in July. We just stand around waiting for people to arrive,' one manager confided.
But other factors have contributed to the decline in footfall, too. Like its glitzy sister Mykonos – which is also experiencing a major downturn in arrivals – overtourism has been a major problem for Santorini in recent years. With around 3.4 million tourists a year, traffic jams can be dire, rubbish overflows in the streets, and a lack of accommodation has forced seasonal workers to live in cramped rooms or, in some cases, in caves.
A cap on cruise ship arrivals – down to 8,000 a day – and a €20 per passenger tax was finally approved this year. 'The image of Santorini this year is different compared to other years, as the flows of visitors have been regulated,' the town's mayor Nikos Zorzos is quoted as saying.
With plenty of accommodation available, hotels trimming rates in an attempt to fill empty rooms and fewer crowds, it's definitely the perfect time to visit Santorini. I found luxury hotels around the caldera, which usually sell rooms for upwards of €700 a night at this time of year, offering rates as low as €300 – something that hasn't happened since the Covid pandemic.
Alexandrou agrees that it's a good time to visit. 'Even busy places like Oia feel more relaxed,' he told me.
To test his verdict, we headed out on one of VIP Santorini's photo tours designed for punters who want pictures of themselves in all the main hotspots that are popular with Instagrammers and selfie-takers. Usually jammed with tourists from one end to the other, Oia's pedestrian footpath leading to the village's famed castle sunset spot was blissfully easy to navigate.
Further on, we paused to pose above a string of glittering caldera-edge pools. Usually packed with loved-up honeymooners, they were all empty. Even at the famed blue-domed church picture spot, where, Alexandrou told me, there are usually lengthy queues, we snapped the perfect shots right away without having to jostle for position.
'This is an almost unheard-of chance to have a holiday with very low prices compared to previous years,' John Burbaris, manager of the newly renovated Canaves Ena hotel in Oia, adds.