Not one more bed on Paros

On the occasion of the public consultation on the new Local Urban Plan

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On the occasion of the public consultation on the new Local Urban Plan

Preparation began in 2024 for the new Local Urban Plan (Τ.Π.Σ.) of Paros, which will replace the General Urban Plan (Γ.Π.Σ.) in force since 2012 and will largely determine the course of the island for the next thirty years, perhaps more. In the coming months, the online public consultation on this new Local Urban Plan is expected to open, and any citizen or organisation will be able to submit their views.

The drafting of the Plan has been assigned by the Ministry to the consultancy firm “Samaras S.A.”, together with a set of directions reflecting how the Ministry wishes the urban planning of our island to proceed. However, one of the most fundamental principles of spatial planning is the participation of the local community in the decisions that precede the final design — a principle which the state appears to honour only as a formality [1], but which the Citizens’ Movement of Paros considers essential.

At the Citizens’ Movement of Paros, we have taken very seriously the discussions (conferences, workshops, presentations) organised over the past two years by significant local associations, which brought us into contact with specialists who shared their views on a genuinely sustainable plan for the island’s future. Combining their expert knowledge with our own experience as residents and citizens of Paros, we have formulated proposals and positions on the urban planning of Paros that stand in direct opposition to the prevailing government policy for the “exploitation” of our islands. We have published these positions and shared them with the consultancy firm, as well as with the political actors involved — the Ministry, the MPs of the Cyclades, and others.

One of the central points of our intervention concerns, of course, our opposition to any further growth in tourist arrivals on Paros. In complete contrast to the consultancy firm, we propose — and demand a full ban on new tourist beds on the island.

At the presentation of the first phase of the plan, delivered to the Paros Municipal Council by “Samaras S.A.”, the consultant verbally suggested allowing hotels of up to 100 beds on Paros, overturning the current limit of 80 beds set by the 2012 General Urban Plan. We consider precisely the opposite to be imperative: not one new bed.

The current total number of beds on Paros is more than sufficient to accommodate a large — and only marginally tolerable — number of visitors. Any further supply of tourist beds will burden rather than benefit the natural environment, the island’s infrastructure, and even the future of tourism on Paros itself. Taking into account the broader, massive penetration of large hotel groups into the Paros tourism market over the past decade, we consider it inevitable that building and operating more hotels will set off dynamics that will gradually push small and medium entrepreneurs, and the small family businesses currently making a living from tourism, out of the market. The same applies to the additional beds made available for short-term rental, which are already far too many.

At present, there are roughly 140 small and large hotel units on Paros, with several more preparing to open soon. There are also numerous complexes of rented rooms, and over the past decade hundreds of dwellings have been added to the short-term rental market. Adding it all up, Paros can host on the order of 40,000 to 50,000 people every night.

As those of us who live on the island know all too well, the number of visitors is already at the edge of what can be borne. The serious difficulties in managing waste, summer traffic congestion, the shortage of parking, the enormous pressures on water supply, and the heavy pressures on our necessary and precious primary sector are all crying out that the carrying capacity has been exceeded. Any further infrastructure built to serve more visitors — desalination plants, roads, ports, the airport — will impose an even greater burden, not only on the already threatened natural environment, but also on the daily lives of permanent residents and visitors alike.

And for what benefit, exactly, to the local community and the future of our island?

• It is clear and obvious that the profits from large, luxury tourist enterprises overwhelmingly feed the bottom line of the companies that operate them, with only a minimal share filtering down to the level of the local economy.
• At the same time, the jobs created — whether during construction or in staffing and running the tourist units — have already exceeded the local labour supply. The growth in tourism jobs is already being filled by workers brought to the island for the season, which in turn drives up seasonal demand for housing — hardly a benefit on an island that already struggles to house the public servants it needs, such as teachers and doctors.
• In vehicle rentals alone, the rental cars circulating and parked on the island approach 10,000, while large companies — not owned by locals — are already operating intensively (and profiting accordingly), creating competitive conditions against local enterprise that are highly unlikely to allow small operators in this field to survive, on top of the enormous burden this places on the island, both in traffic and in visual terms.

Consequently, even in strictly economic terms, further growth in tourist arrivals is not only unnecessary, it risks being destructive — even for those lawful residents who have so far benefited from it, whether as business owners or as workers.

Until a few decades ago, the growth of tourism did indeed work as a blessing for our place, allowing the impoverished agricultural economy of Paros to breathe. Today, however, its continued expansion has nothing positive left to add. On the contrary, it threatens to destroy what already exists — including economically. Further touristification, given the familiar dynamics of the free market, will impose harsh competitive pressures on the small and medium businesses that are currently thriving on the island. The script is already well known from many other cases on the global tourism map. Tourist over-exploitation of a place always ends in a destructive spiral — not only for the environment but for the economy as well, with the most dramatic consequences falling on the least privileged.

Paros, like all the Cycladic islands, has always been a particular and fragile place that demanded a small scale at every level. Large scales are catastrophic for our islands. And the new Local Urban Plan of Paros may be our last chance to save the island from predatory over-exploitation. Let us not let it go to waste.

April 2026 – Tonia Pantelaiou is an active member of the Paros Citizens’ Movement

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[1] A more detailed account of the procedural shortcomings regarding the preparation of Local Urban Plans can be found in the report Local Urban Plans in the Cyclades, published by the Network for Sustainable Cyclades in January 2026