The unspoilt Greek island under threat from cruise ships

I puffed up the last of 350 steep and slippery steps to Panagia Hozoviotissa. Spread out far below me was the turquoise bay of Agia Anna, where Luc Besson’s classic The Big Blue was filmed, and high above me the 10th-century monastery, with its eight floors linked by narrow stone staircases carved into the cliff face, like some fantastical fortress.

Ducking under the low doorway I stepped inside the cave-like, incense-perfumed church where monks in long black robes and kalimavkion hats served thimbles of clove-scented, honey-flavoured psimeni raki along with sugar-dusted squares of loukoumi (what we would call Turkish delight) to the half dozen visitors.

There was a precious sense of discovery – of sharing something special with the handful of fellow travellers that had made the effort to visit this remote island, Amorgos. The magic could well be destroyed, however, if plans to build a new cruise terminal in Katapola, the island’s tiny port, come to fruition. It will ease the burden faced by overcrowded Mykonos, to the north, and Santorini, to the south, some have argued. But many fear the impact on Amorgos.

I visited the easternmost of the Cyclades last summer on an Unexplored Greece itinerary. We arrived by boat – but not a hulking liner of the kind that will surely come if a cruise terminal is built. Our small Variety Cruises ship carried fewer than 50 passengers – barely ruffling the surface of this Aegean island roughly the size of Liechtenstein.

Hopping into taxis we drove along tiny roads with barely room for two cars to pass, exploring the island’s rugged interior or splashing about in difficult-to-reach coves like Lefkes or Morou, where rare monk seals come to breed in autumn.

Filippos Venetopoulos, the CEO of Variety, told me: “We have a range of different island stopovers in the Cyclades and in the Ionian and Aegean Seas, many are not on the main tourist tracks. We value the environment and do our utmost to limit our impact while investing in projects that help minimise overtourism. Because [our] guests shop – and often eat – ashore they are also contributing to the local economy.” The same cannot always be said of the larger vessels that are the mainstays of Mykonos and Santorini, bringing to each island as many as 16,000 passengers a day.

During our cruise stopover I took a taxi to Mouschoudaki in the village of Lagada on the slopes of Krikellos, the island’s highest mountain. One of Amorgos’s traditional kafeneia, they’ve been serving aniseed-scented ouzo and meze snacks here since 1945. Seated on a cane chair in a cosy parlour with gleaming wood floors and old pictures on the walls, I chatted with Giorgos, one of the elderly customers. “Where would all those cruise people sit if they came here?”, he said, pointing at the half-dozen tables.

It’s a sensible question. Anyone who’s visited Santorini’s capital Fira in peak season, and when the mega ships are in town, knows that it’s barely possible to stand, let alone sit, due to the elbow-to-elbow overcrowding.

Local authorities have agreed to set limits, with no ships over 150 metres and none at all in July and August (this summer the 922-passenger MSC Explora I anchored in Katapola, causing chaos on the island’s narrow streets). In a petition that was launched shortly after the news of the decision to build a new port was announced, local Alexios Seilopoulos stated that the island already faces serious infrastructure issues, including problems with waste collection, sewage management and sea pollution, which would only be worsened by the project.

Another islander, who didn’t wish to be named, told me he was sceptical that any of the revenue made from cruise ships would return to the island. “In Santorini the roads are terrible, there are problems with water – there are even open-air rubbish tips – but it’s an island where they make millions each year from tourism, so why is there no investment there?”

Irene Giannakopoulos, owner of luxury property Aegialis Hotel & Spa, says that she and other hoteliers welcome the initiative, however. “The local businesses will welcome visitors to the island as this means that there will be revenues, and the development that will follow will benefit the whole of the local community,” said the hotelier, who also owns Aegialis Tours, a company that organises shore excursions for cruise visitors.

In a recent report the Greek National Tourism Organisation, which estimates that Greece will welcome more than 36 million passengers by 2026, says that “sustainability and social responsibility are pivotal to the global cruise industry.” Personally I find it difficult to see anything remotely sustainable in sending ships with 1,000 passengers or more to a tiny island with very little tourist infrastructure where water shortages are so severe that local farmers are struggling to grow the crops they’ve produced for decades. I can only hope – for Amorgos’s sake – that the future proves me wrong.