- 19 hours ago
Dateline AU - Season Episode 12 - Greek Islands: Built Up & Booked Out
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00:04Pristine coastlines and postcard villages, a once untouched paradise, is now anything but.
00:16Greece is one of the most popular holiday destinations in the world.
00:22Every year, more than 37 million tourists flock to see the famous sights.
00:30But catching a glimpse of a Santorini sunset gets harder every season, and the landscape is buckling under the weight
00:39of the tourist boom.
01:20This is a normal day on the island of Santorini.
01:27Three cruise ships sit off the coast, each with thousands of passengers waiting to be ferried ashore for a few
01:35hours on the island.
01:37Just enough time to see the view, take a photo, and tick it off the list.
01:44Today, around 8,000 visitors will pass through, and everyone is heading the same way, up.
01:52It's a one-hour wait for the cable car, or there's the more authentic ride to the top.
02:08Jack is very good.
02:10His name is Jack.
02:11Jack is very good.
02:42Most tourists visiting Santorini simply want to snap a postcard-worthy picture.
02:48This is a very famous tourist spot.
02:51Here is the blue dome and the white horse.
02:55And so many couples will come here maybe to spend their honeymoon.
02:59So that's why it's very expensive, the accommodation and the food.
03:04And the massive crowds don't bother everyone.
03:07As the Chinese, we have so many people, so large.
03:12We are used to that.
03:16But Santorini's epic landscape was never meant for these crowds.
03:21One of the driest islands in Greece, it now boasts more than 1,000 swimming pools.
03:28So many that water is shipped in just to keep up with demand.
03:33And all of it is carved into volcanic cliffs.
03:38Beautiful, but brittle.
03:41Thousands of people are leaving the Greek island of Santorini
03:45after multiple underwater earthquakes struck the Aegean Sea.
03:49Santorini sits on an active volcanic system.
03:53And Greece is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world,
03:57with an average of 28,000 tremors recorded every year.
04:03Even small shifts can trigger rock falls here.
04:06And the more that's built, the greater the pressure on the landscape.
04:12But that hasn't slowed development.
04:15For those trying to protect what's left,
04:18the strain on the environment has become impossible to ignore.
04:23Stop!
04:24There is no new harm for tourists.
04:26The threats that you have to do are dangerous.
04:28With the rocks, with the water, with the water.
04:32We have these tourists.
04:33There are many accidents.
04:34We stop to grow.
04:37Environmentalist Carolina Rakaki has been lobbying
04:40to halt construction projects.
04:42But court cases here can take unexpected turns.
04:47It's true.
04:48We're waiting for the decision.
04:49We would like many to lose it.
04:51So we can manage the environment
04:54in these little fights that are made
04:56and can be lost.
04:58It's one of the fights that have been lost.
05:00Unfortunately, in Greece,
05:02many fights are not based on how simple,
05:08or how weak the fights are,
05:10or how weak the fights are.
05:13And many times,
05:14if the fights are very weak,
05:15they will lose the fight
05:16regardless of whether it has the right or the right.
05:24A few islands over in Mykonos.
05:28New plans bring new problems.
05:33Tasos Teloglu is an investigative journalist
05:36covering organized crime and corruption on the island.
05:40He's been tracking a real estate scandal
05:43that sent shockwaves through Greece,
05:45a land dispute that turned deadly.
05:49This plot was owned by a local man,
05:52a prime site worth millions
05:54and slated for luxury development.
05:58According to reports,
06:00he'd been in a dispute with prospective buyers for years,
06:03until one day surveillance cameras captured this.
06:0820 shots, at close range, in broad daylight.
06:13A mafia-style murder.
06:19The alleged perpetrator was arrested,
06:21but police say there are signs of a broader network's involvement.
06:27Exactly who is hard to trace,
06:30and even harder to prove.
06:35a person's murder.
06:36The confusion is about this.
06:38The chase is missing outside of Mykonos.
06:38There is no doubt that theimage is made by Mykonos.
06:40The impression on attack of the Ykoros
06:44is that large property with no doubt
06:46came out of Mykonos to resale the record.
06:52They're experiencing the agenda.
07:22It's a serious claim that powerful players are pulling the strings, a claim the mayor of Mykonos rejects.
07:30He insists that things are under control.
09:08The mayor says responsibility lies with the government in Athens, while officials in Athens say it's
09:14up to local authorities.
09:16In the meantime, enforcement can fall through the cracks.
09:22But it hasn't always been like this.
09:29In the 1950s and 60s, Mykonos was still a quiet fishing island.
09:35And its most famous resident was Petros the Pelican.
09:40Then came the super rich.
09:43And the island built a reputation it still trades on today.
09:47A playground for the wealthy.
09:53It's beach clubs rank among the most expensive in the world, with minimum spends of up to 10,000
10:00euros a night.
10:03It's a great place.
10:13Petros Nazos is a local paparazzo.
10:25He's constantly on the lookout for celebrities.
10:41Back at his studio, he reveals some of the celebrities he's snapped.
10:46Hugh Jackman, DiCaprio with the capello.
11:11But it's not just the super rich who come to party.
11:16Last year, 768 cruise ships docked here.
11:23Daytrippers come for the whitewashed houses and stay for the waterfront bars.
11:29We'll be having a beer in a minute.
11:31Just seeing the sights, having a look at little Venice and meeting the locals and enjoying the sun.
11:38We'll come for the sun, as you can see.
11:40But for locals, the reality of the boom is less idyllic.
11:45I feel like it's a military.
11:48The conditions are quite difficult.
11:53Through the heat, through the heat of the tourism.
11:56Everyone comes from strangers.
11:59They're tired, they're not hungry, they can be hungry.
12:01They're tired, they're tired.
12:03The truth is that we're not hungry.
12:07We're not hungry.
12:12We are hungry.
12:15We're hungry.
12:16This summer, cruise passengers will have to pay 20 euros just to step ashore in Mykonos.
12:22With more than a million tourists planning holidays, it's not expected to be a huge deterrent.
12:31But there are islands in Greece doing things differently.
12:36On Astepalia, locals are trying to protect what they have.
12:42And it helps that it's hard to reach.
12:47Astepalia has no international airport and cruise ships can't dock here, which helps keep the crowds at bay.
12:56The tourists, who do come here, are looking for something more homely.
13:04It's very familiar here.
13:06It's to come home.
13:08In Greece, it's big.
13:12Astepalia, especially since I've been here for 12 years,
13:17I've come from the taxi driver.
13:21It's a welcome.
13:23It's the first welcome.
13:25Then you're brought here and then you're coming home.
13:30Like elsewhere in Greece, tourism is growing in Astepalia.
13:35But it's largely still built around family-run businesses, like this small hotel run by mother and daughter Konstantina and
13:44Lilo.
13:44They say that Astepalia is the island of positive energy.
13:49And everyone who comes here is happy.
13:51And most of them come again.
13:53They go to Bandan.
13:55They go to Bandan too.
13:56They go to such tourism.
13:58I don't want tourists who come here to party,
14:01who drink until the morning,
14:04and do what they do in other islands.
14:11Around 70,000 tourists come to Astepalia every year.
14:16A fraction of the numbers flooding in to Mykonos and Santorini.
14:20But even here, there are questions about what comes next.
14:27I don't want to be like Santorini and Mykonos.
14:30Because a souvlaki in Mykonos costs 17 euros,
14:33and here it costs 3,50 euros.
14:36And the sun, the sky, and everything is so expensive.
14:39No, I'd like to stay like we are.
14:43It's a view shared by many here, including the island's mare.
14:48Okay, guys.
14:49What are you doing?
14:50Good luck.
14:51He's made it his mission
14:53to keep large-scale development off Astepalia
14:56and preserve what makes the island special.
15:00Look now, Floria. Look again where we are.
15:03You'll understand how life is created.
15:06This is it this time.
15:08They take nectar from this dream
15:10and they make the flesh.
15:12This is the life of the land.
15:14And this is to stay in the ages.
15:17To remind us how it was and how it should be there.
15:22This stretch of land overlooking the coast
15:24was once earmarked for a major resort development.
15:29The plan was, imagine,
15:31about hundreds of thousands of homes
15:33of each one of the hundred-totragons
15:35and one of the classic houses
15:38of one or two of the classic houses
15:40in the houses.
15:43It would be like roads everywhere.
15:45You would have to go into these things.
15:47You would have to have the need.
15:48You would have to have the need.
15:49You would have to have the need.
15:50You would have to have 200 piscines.
15:51We would have to have 2,000 piscines.
15:52We would have to have 2,000 piscines.
15:52It's a part that can start
15:54from the bottom of the river
15:56and it will go back and come here.
15:58It's a very big surface.
16:01This is the destruction of nature.
16:04What do we mean?
16:05We want to grow.
16:06Hundreds of homes, hotels and private pools.
16:10It's a scale of development
16:12that would have transformed the island.
16:14But local authorities pushed back
16:17and the federal government put it on hold.
16:20For now, at least, a rare victory.
16:23You see, if you can see
16:25and you can see it later,
16:26you can see the roads
16:27which are going to be
16:28and they're going to be
16:29like they've been living in the old days.
16:32This is how we do.
16:33We keep our safety and our safety.
16:36We keep our safety.
16:37We keep our safety.
16:38We keep our safety.
16:38We keep our safety.
16:39And all the tourism
16:40should not be something
16:41that is what exists.
16:43It is the case in the end.
16:44We want to be in the same place.
16:47But tourism is coming without being caught up, without being destroyed.
16:52Meanwhile on Mykonos, the boom continues.
17:10On the island of Mykonos, construction is creeping into every corner.
17:17Local celebrity photographer, Petros Nazos, lives here in Agrari.
17:23And despite earning a living from high-end tourism,
17:27he's not happy about plans to build a luxury hotel right next to his home.
17:47And now, with this project, it's going to be destroyed and it's going to be destroyed.
17:57There are very serious problems, not only economically.
18:02As you can see, the roads are filled with the
18:31The latest proposal here, in Agrarii,
18:34is a 200 million euro luxury development.
18:38The developer wants the project to be designated a strategic investment,
18:43which allows it to bypass some local safeguards and get its approvals fast-tracked.
18:50Plans include a hotel, luxury villas and resort facilities built into the landscape.
18:58The company calls it an ultra-luxury eco-project,
19:02set in one of the island's last unspoiled landscapes.
19:07The company says the project is still under review
19:11and that the process is designed to ensure environmentally friendly construction
19:16and benefits for Greek society.
19:19Just up the road, more construction.
19:24Investigative reporter Tassos is at the site of the soon-to-be Four Seasons Hotel.
19:30At this time, the work of Miko is to buy rocks.
19:35The value of the land has been increased over the last 20 years
19:41seven or eight times.
19:43We don't have to forget that many of these people are full.
19:48And this leads to their consumption.
19:50Here we see that at the same time,
19:53there is another strategic investment.
19:57On the other hand, there is Radisson Blue,
20:00another brand.
20:01On the other hand, there are dozens of other businesses.
20:04And on the other hand, there is another very large businesses,
20:07a very large business,
20:08a local business.
20:10That means there is actually more cement
20:14than the law of the European Union.
20:21Back on Santorini,
20:23the traditional culture is slowly dying
20:25under the weight of the tourism industry.
20:32All of this is more expensive.
20:34It is more expensive.
20:37Because of the tourism,
20:38there are lots and lots,
20:39lots and lots, lots and lots,
20:42lots and lots, lots and lots.
20:43But the disaster has come from us.
20:47Because we have not created a law
20:51that we have to be able to maintain.
20:53We have to be able to maintain
20:55the Africa and the one we have to be able
20:59And to have this vision,
21:04that we have to be able to maintain
21:05the plan and believe
21:07It is a democratic context.
21:12It is not true.
21:17You can't live.
21:20It is not true that
21:22it is not true.
21:24It's the place where it's filled.
21:29It brings you here,
21:33in the way you look,
21:35and, of course,
21:36it brings you to the
21:37of this of us.
21:39It brings us all of this of this of us
21:45and it doesn't create a good
21:48psychological situation,
21:50if we want it.
21:53his vineyard which has existed for generations surrounded on all sides by
21:58hotel construction sites it's a boom that shows no signs of slowing fueled by
22:06a constant flow of tourist dollars which make up around a quarter of Greece's
22:10economy each year more than 3 million visitors arrive here on Santorini on an
22:18island home to just 16,000 at times it pushes the landscape to its limit red
22:27beach is one of the island's most famous sites it's officially closed after
22:33earthquakes left the cliffs above it unstable
22:39we just came to see it because we heard it was a great place to watch but we also
22:43heard we shouldn't walk there that is dangerous
22:50the order came from authorities in Athens but the closure has come as more of a
22:56suggestion to some visitors
23:04all to catch a glimpse of the view and prove you are here by posting it
23:11I think that's the point that most of us must have done it if you are near or if you
23:17are in
23:17Greece and now we can also say that we have done it
23:20yes
23:21yes
23:21yes
23:22yes
23:22yes
23:26yes
23:27yes
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