By Bhabani Shankar Nayak
In the timeless Greek canvas of Corfu, the sun bursts out from the backsides of mountains and sets along the picturesque shorelines of the Ionian and Adriatic Sea. The forest-covered mountains and hilly landscapes bring life to the Ionian Isle, with snaking coastal roads. The art, architecture, arcaded streets, tree-lined avenues, narrow lanes, and city squares in Corfu’s city center bring back the diverse cultural heritage and architectural legacy of the Venetians.
The bougainvillea blossoms from French-style balconies, absorbing the Ionian breeze, while waves greet the coastal landscape of Strongyli village in the southeast of Corfu—a place to retreat.
The beauty, flora and fauna of Corfu and its natural ecosystem are under threat today due to the rise of hyper-tourism.
The rent-seeking character of the Greek state promotes tourism and seeks foreign direct investment to develop tourism infrastructure, which is affecting the beauty of Corfu by displacing the local population as house prices skyrocket. It is becoming an island paradise for real estate developers, hoteliers, the hospitality industry, and other ancillary sectors. The beautiful island is turning into a hospitality hub for tourists coming from all over the world, but an inhospitable place for its own people, who consider Corfu their home and not merely a long weekend destination.
Rich tourists, weekend travellers, and holidaymakers from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Poland constitute nearly 75 % of arrivals, while the remaining visitors come from all around the world. Corfu is a traveller’s paradise, but the Greek government frames it primarily in terms of a tourism economy that is projected to generate more than one billion euros in 2026.
Corfu as a tourist destination commodifies its coast, culture, and nature for profit. Tourism as an industry has weakened other diverse sectors of Corfu’s economy. For example, agriculture in Corfu has declined due to the growth of tourism, which provides seasonal income to local people but contributes to a higher cost of living year-round.
A hotel worker in Strongyli complained that she works longer hours and saves less due to the high cost of living. House prices have increased with the expansion of tourist accommodation businesses, making it difficult for locals to buy homes. Local hotels, bars, nightclubs, restaurants, and coffee shops are becoming inaccessible to the local population in Corfu. These invisible issues on the island are undermined by the continuous selling of its experiences and natural beauty.
The Greek state, government, and local authorities in Corfu often ignore the needs of local people while creating capitalist infrastructure for tourists. The Greek state and the city government act as facilitators for capitalist classes and investors, while overlooking the needs and desires of local communities.
The mass rise of tourism also disrupts collectivist lifestyles on the island, promoting a more individualistic culture centered on life, leisure, and pleasure, which reflects the core values of tourism-led rent-seeking capitalism. The growing vulnerabilities of people and places in Corfu reveal the limits of an economic monoculture based on tourism and its so-called sustainable forms within a capitalist framework.
The city planners and policymakers are looking at reducing mass tourism by promoting class tourism, in which Corfu would attract only wealthy tourists in order to increase tourism revenue and reduce the number of visitors. Such an alternative would not solve the challenges of Corfu and its people. It would only further establish Corfu as an elitist island for the rich, where there would be no place for poorer people. Such a class-based approach would promote capitalist tourism and expand its foothold on the island, which fundamentally destroys the democratic and universalist approach to life, leisure, and pleasure.
Sustainable tourism demands public investment and public tourist infrastructure for local people, places, and nature, in order to uphold the island’s natural beauty, flora, and fauna. The state and government must address the needs and desires of local people as a priority in order to sustain tourism in Corfu.
The writer teaches at the London Metropolitan University.