First cruise ship with tourists arrives in Santorini after the earthquakes

The Greek island of Santorini, one of the main destinations for tourism in Greece, received its first cruise ship of the year after the wave of earthquakes that broke out in February and caused tourists and many of its 20,000 inhabitants to flee this volcanic island, located in the middle of the Aegean Sea.

According to news agencies, the cruise ship ‘Celestyal Discovery’ arrived in Santorini on Sunday morning with around 1,700 passengers on board, mainly from the United States. Tourism is the main source of income for the island, which receives near 3 million tourists every year; but due to fears of a major earthquake or even an eruption of the Santorini volcano, main cruise companies had until now eliminated this destination from their routes.

Greek authorities now claim that the island – which is actually made up of the remains of the enormous caldera of a volcano that erupted 3,500 years ago – is completely safe for tourists, and most of the restrictions on Santorini and neighbouring islands such as Amorgos and Anafi have been lifted, including the closure of schools and the suspension of construction works, as well as the ban on large groups of people gathering in enclosed spaces.

With the end of the state of alert declared by the central government in Athens and the return of tourists to the island, the shops and businesses as well as the hotels in Santorini hope to be able to gradually recover and save the tourist season. Although some security measures will continue for some time, experts say that earthquakes are declining and that the island is safe. Even so, last Friday, 21 March, a new 4.1 earthquake was recorded between the islands of Amorgos and Santorini; and although it did not cause any damage, it has once again reminded tourists and residents that this is still a seismically active region.

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