The seismic activity in the Aegean Sea around Santorini and many other Greek islands has been picking up for days, with some of the strongest quakes happening just today. With all of this activity, the Greek government has issued a state of emergency for the island.
State of Emergency for Santorini
This state of emergency was declared today for Santorini and will stay in effect until March 1. This is due to the ongoing quakes and tremors in the region and the fact that the buildings on Santorini, while solid themselves, are built on an island made up of shifting volcanic rock, not to mention the cliffs that some of the most sought after properties are built on.
As of last night, there was a 5.2 magnitude tremor felt between Santorini and Amorgos. This was the strongest so far though another came this morning at a 4.7 magnitude. With all of this seismic activity, more than 11,000 people have left the island, which has a regular population of just under 16,000 people. Over 7,000 of those have left by air with SKY Express and Aegean adding additional flights every day to get people off the island. The flights between Santorini and Athens have been some of the most tracked flights on popular flight app, FlightRadar24.
SKY Express has been offering free flights to children under 12 and teachers during this time and regular tickets are sold for around €54. All passengers with flights booked to Santorini for this current period can change those flights. Since this is the off-peak season for the island, only about 10% of the island’s hotels are open so not many people are currently traveling to the island, which will see more than 3 million tourists this year.
Speaking of tourists, vacation booking agents have not seen any cancellations at all to Santorini from the European market as there are still 3 months before the official tourist season opens. The Greek prime minister will be visiting the island tomorrow to check on the status of the island in person. Not only do more than 15,000 of his citizens live on this island but it is responsible for attracting more visitors to Greece than any other island so it has a significant impact on the tourism sector for the country.
For those visitors that have felt comfortable staying on the island, this gives an unprecedented time of having the island to themselves – even more than during Covid. The traditional photo spots have been empty and the views are all unobstructed. However, with temps just at 50 degrees, it obviously isn’t warm enough for spending much time down at the beaches.
