Ideal for a selfie but Greek island’s empty streets are a worrying sight
It is early evening in Mykonos town and the sunset selfie-seekers are out in force. Domestic and international tourists alike mill around Little Venice, the Cycladic island’s top attraction, posing beneath whitewashed windmills and snapping the sun as it sets over the glistening Aegean.
Mykonos is made for Instagram. Its highly stylised hotels and beach clubs draw a predominantly young and wealthy crowd. As revellers sip cocktails in bars along the waterfront, it feels like business as usual on Greece’s priciest island, despite the rise in Covid-19 cases across Europe.
But the streets behind the waterfront tell a different story. These narrow lanes lined with clothing boutiques, jewellery and souvenir shops usually teem with day-trippers from cruise ships that tour the islands.
This week, bored-looking shop assistants talk among themselves, glancing dejectedly up and down the empty streets.
Maria Rampias owns Mykonos Sandals, a leatherwear business in Little Venice. Her grandfather first opened the shop in 1948. “If there were cruises, it would be busy,” she says.
In 2019, Mykonos welcomed 787,490 cruise passengers, the third largest number in Greece, after Piraeus and Santorini. Following the outbreak of the pandemic, Greece closed its ports to all cruise ships.
The country planned to open six of its cruise ports from yesterday, but Konstantinos Koukas, the island’s mayor, fears it is too late in the season for cruises to make any real difference to ailing businesses. “Even if they do start again, we don’t know if they will have visitors on board,” he says.
Ms Rampias says businesses that own their properties will likely weather the storm, but those with leases may struggle to open next year, due to high rents. “It depends on how much people have put aside in the last few years,” she adds.
And many will have struggled to save after almost a decade of austerity following Greece’s 2009 sovereign debt crisis, which saw GDP contract by 9.1 per cent in 2011. The recession crippled the country, leading to mass unemployment, pension and wage cuts, and heavy privatisation.
Greece’s economy has recovered thanks in part to tourism revenue; the sector makes up 18 per cent of the country’s GDP and employs one in five Greeks. But now the pandemic has ground the world’s travellers to a halt.
In May, the European Commission forecast Greek GDP would contract by 9.75 per cent, deeper than the last recession, but has since revised its forecast to a milder 9 per cent.
Businesses that weathered the last crisis are bracing for another blow. For the first time, five-star resorts built into bays and hills across the island stand eerily empty.
The Myconian Collection is Mykonos’ largest luxury accommodation chain. Its 10 familyowned properties are all closed this year. The Myconian did not reply to The Sunday Telegraph’s queries on its decision.
Smaller hotels are faring better, but prices have dropped significantly, and average capacity across the island is at roughly 25 per cent, according to Mr Koukas. Markos and Jessica run White and Grey, a small hotel a few kilometres outside town. They felt obliged to drop their room prices by almost 50 per cent because of similar cuts offered by their competitors.
Through April and May the couple contemplated remaining shut.
“But finally we had to balance out our renovation costs,” says Jessica. “It was like playing poker.” While occupancy remains low – three out of 10 rooms are booked – they are holding out hope for August.
On Tuesday, Greece’s minister for citizen’s protection came to Mykonos to step up enforcement of regulations at the island’s more unruly establishments, with 110 police officers provided to support 24-hour inspections.
In June, a video of a crowded dance party at Alemagou beach bar went viral. Local authorities imposed a 60-day closure, and €20,000 (£18,000) fine for flouting safety regulations. “They should do better, and we’re after them,” said Mr Koukas of the beach bars.
Although visits were at an all-time low in June and July, arrival rates to the island’s airport are picking up rapidly, coinciding with a rise in cases across Greece. While the country’s decisive handling of the virus meant it has recorded only 206 deaths to date, daily cases are the highest they’ve ever been; 65 new cases were reported in the latest 24-hour period, 34 of which came from international arrivals.
On Thursday night at Scorpios, an exclusive beach club frequented by models and influencers, masked waiters deliver €300 wine bottles to low tables with stunning views. A hundred or so more people are queuing outside, desperate for a seat.
“We’re not worried because it’s all open air,” says Diago, a young man who flew from the UK with a stop-off in Italy. “It’s no different to the parks in London.”
‘Even if cruises do start again, we don’t know if they will have visitors on board’
‘We’re not worried because it’s all open air. It’s no different to the parks in London’