Weeks after being hit by thousands of small-scale earthquakes, the island of Santorini, the jewelry in the crown in the Greek tourism sector, is determined to return to businesses as usual-even when the earthquake’s phenomenon remains a mystery.
The island depends on tourism, which enjoyed a strong return after the coronary pandemic, is based on it.
The first two cruise ships of the season arrived on the last two Sundays of March and more than 40 are due to this month, starting a year when the union of cruise ship owners has predicted an increase of 10 % of cruise visitors last year.
But hoteliers are still waiting for a slower year, with reservations of about 30 % compared to 2024.
“Things have woken up in the last two weeks,” said Alexis Yannoulatos, who manages the Blue Dolphins Hotel and the Grand View at Caldera, Santorini, the brink of an ancient volcano that gave the island its unique shape, colorful beaches and rocks. But he said that April was likely to be a “miserable” month for tourist revenue.
Mr Yannoulatos, who hosted South Korea visitors at the height of the midst of the mid -February crisis, said possession of his hotels was 30 % for April, with reservations for May and in the summer months expected to rise to about 50 %.
Maria Manousoudaki, who holds Alti suites on the island of the island, said that bookings “come to thunderstorms and drabs” for the next two months, but will open half full this week, with visitors from Britain, France and Israel and the United States.
The island, which has a population of 15,500 and usually hosts over three million visitors a year, had previously worried about excessive tourism and even this week, the authorities who started the Santorini tourist campaign insisted on the importance of “sustainable” tourism. As of June 1, cruise ship visitors must pay 20 euros, about $ 21.50, one meter approved last year to reduce the excessive crowd on the island.
But a few weeks ago, thousands of earthquakes hit the island, sometimes every few minutes, sending most of the inhabitants. Authorities closed the schools and installed emergency services in the area and experts were limited to interpret the horrors, which culminated in 5.3 Temblor on 10 February.
As the quakes relaxed in late February and in early March, residents returned, schools reopened and hoteliers repeated the renovations to prepare Easter and summer visitors. Now, most terror is less than size 3, basically subtle, and life on the island returns to normal.
However, the phenomenon of quake remains inexplicable.
“We have not yet reached a conclusion about the causes,” Athanasios Ganas, Director of Research at the National Observatory of the Athens Institute of Geodynamics, said this week.
Some areas on the side of the rock that are prone to landslides will remain out of bounds until May 15, as earthquakes are looking for ways to minimize risk, Mayor Nikos Zorzos told reporters at the start of the tourist campaign.
“There will be a little numbness at the beginning, but the season is open – we are ready,” he insisted.
Greece Minister of Tourism, Olga Kefalogianni, said in the fact that Santorini “returns to regularity” and that “remains a safe and hospitable destination”, adding that the safety of residents and visitors “is our absolute priority”.
The earthquake crisis also affected the island’s seasonal workforce, with horrors adding long -term concerns from workers for the long hours required at summer resorts and lack of benefits all year long, such as health insurance, said Giorgos Diamantopoulos.
The recruitment has already begun for the 25,000 seasonal workers, who are based in the island’s tourist sector, he said, adding that the recruitment has so far been from Albania, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and the Philippines. The statistics of the Ministry of Labor showed that only 2,600 employees were hired in March.
In the meantime, scientists are trying to understand recent earthquakes.
Researchers use seismic screens and remote submarine vehicles to study the terrorists and volcanoes of the area-if they stress that no significant explosion is expected, the latter occurred 3,500 years ago.
And on Monday night, foreign scientists joined their Greek counterparts with a video for a discussion in Athens to analyze terrorists and mild volcanic activity with the help of artificial intelligence. They agreed on one thing: the earthquake order was unprecedented and remarkable.
Concerning the prospects for a strong earthquake, Mr Ganas said the evidence suggests that it was unlikely, even when the area was able to do a Temblor up to 7.1.
The island’s hoteliers supported both geological and economic turmoil, although Ms Manousoudaki said she was more concerned about monetary losses than a possible major earthquake, given the resilience of Santorini buildings.
“It is true that many buildings in the caldera are basically attached to the rocks,” he said. “But they are built to withstand earthquakes,” he added. “I feel safer here than I would like in Athens.”
