The Aegean islands are uniquely beautiful. These small, mountainous or semi-mountainous often waterless places, are inhabited by a small number of people.   Economic activity on the islands is mostly small-scale with agriculture, tourism and residential development all vying for the same limited natural, economic and social resources.

Today the development model of the Aegean islands is based on the “monoculture” of hospitality and entertainment services provision. This leads to constant building – for rented rooms, holiday homes, hotels, bars, restaurants etc. The islands trade on their sole product – their beauty. But this development model seriously undermines the product and leads to the devastation of the tourist product in the medium term.

Day by day the islands are becoming less and less unique as their aesthetic is being undermined by massively built up beaches, plains, ridges and slopes. As a result “high-quality” tourism -which offers greater and more stable returns to locals- is discourages and the tourist season is extended.  Continuous building is a one way street leading to low quality and unpredictable tourism. In this way our islands are already called up on to compete with Turkey which has much lower employment and living costs.  Needless to say this is impossible. So fatally, the islands’ tourist trade will shrink.

It is not the first time this phenomenon appears. In other parts of the world too the uniqueness of the landscape brought tourism and development. Where this development was based on the short-term exploitation of the unique landscape, manifested in unplanned building development, it was accompanied by a degradation of the environment as a whole – developed and natural. As a result these areas were then abandoned gradually, initially by tourists and eventually by the residents themselves.