Greece now charges 20 euros to step off a cruise ship at Santorini in high summer and caps the island at 8,000 arrivals a day, and the design says more than the price.
The levy and the cap fall on cruise arrivals only. Ferry and air passengers face no limit; the independent traveler with a hotel booking is untouched. Greece has selected against one segment, the day-tripper who buys a coffee and a magnet and leaves the crowding and the wastewater behind, the crowd that skews older and thriftier and is easiest to price out. It is the Maya Bay lesson in Greek clothes: swap the cheap crowd for the expensive one and call it an ecological win. The crowding is local. The check, routed through Athens, mostly is not.
