Every day, the Acropolis will now be able to visit 20 thousand people and no more, a restrictive measure is introduced by the Greek authorities from September 2023.
Restrictions will also be placed on the number of visitors to the most popular archaeological site in Greece per hour. How notes edition of Euronews, now the museum complex is visited by about 23 thousand people a day, large groups of visitors come mainly in the morning.
Lina Mendoni, Minister of Culture of Greece, explained that the introduction of control is necessary in order to prevent the destruction of the monument, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. She noted:
“Obviously, tourism is good for the country, for all of us. But we must work to ensure that excessive tourism does not harm the monument.”
According to her, the new restrictions will be introduced in a trial mode from September 4, and will finally come into force on April 1, 2024. At the same time, visiting time will not be limited, although organized groups of tourists and cruise ship passengers (and this is about 50% of the daily number of visitors) spend an average of 45 minutes on the territory of the archaeological site.
The Acropolis is open from 8 am to 8 pm from Monday to Sunday. In accordance with the new rules, a limited number of people will be able to enter the territory every hour, half of the visitors to the Acropolis come from 8 am to noon. Under the new system, the gates will open to 3,000 people from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., for the next hour to 2,000 people, and the rest of the time the number of visitors will change. Ms. Mendoni says:
“This measure will protect the monument, which is of utmost importance to us, and improve the visitor’s experience of visiting the site.”
As for other Greek sites, the Minister of Culture assured that similar restrictions will be introduced on other popular archaeological sites. The decision on the Acropolis was taken after consultations with tour operators and cruise lines, but was delayed due to the general elections in Greece in June.
The Statistical Office released data showing that more than three million people visited the Acropolis last year. In July, the Greek authorities closed access to the Acropolis and other objects of antiquity at noon, in the midst of a heat wave. In addition, awnings were installed to protect from the sun people standing in line to enter the Acropolis. Mendoni said that these measures could be reintroduced if necessary.
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