It’s 3pm at Rizes, a farm within the coronary heart of Mykonos, and there may be not a champagne bottle in sight, a sunbed to lounge on, or a scintilla of music that may drown the sound of the winds breezing by way of the close by bamboo.
That’s as a result of Nikos Zouganelis, “born and bred” on the celebration island, has intentionally sought to do one thing new. “At Rizes we need to reside the Mykonos of our roots,” he says of the enterprise, whose delights as a substitute embrace cooking courses, breadmaking and horse driving. “We don’t do champagne, we don’t do music, we don’t do crowds.”
Zouganelis’s quest to honour what was as soon as the Cycladic isle’s genuine lifestyle is partly a response to what he has seen round him. But it was not instinctive.
He too, he says, has completed his justifiable share of contributing to the exceptional success of Mykonos. Within the development enterprise like his father earlier than him, the bearded 52-year-old spent many years constructing the villas and inns that helped flip a rocky outcrop, whose terrain even in antiquity was fabled for its harshness, into what it's at present: a playground for the wealthy and well-known.
This summer time they included Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man; the singer and TV persona Nicole Scherzinger and her fiance, former rugby star Thom Evans; and the footballer Mo Salah, who reportedly signed a contract extension for Liverpool value greater than £350,000 every week whereas holidaying on the island.
Zouganelis believes his beloved island has reached a tipping level. “We've got gone astray,” he sighs dolefully after discuss turns to the bulldozers, which might not be in sight round Rizes however which have gnawed into the land to make manner for dwellings at file velocity elsewhere. “Errors have been made. We've got all contributed to them.”
The vacationer season is much from over, however already greater than one million holidaymakers have handed by way of Mykonos. In July an estimated 220,000 guests have been recorded in a single week with a minimum of 30,000 workers – thrice the resident inhabitants – staffing eating places, inns and personal villas. “Everybody needs to reside their fantasy in Mykonos,” beams mayor Konstantinos Koukas.
“Mykonos is a miracle. It's only a small rock within the Aegean Sea and it has managed to turn into a global vacationer vacation spot that brings in billions of euros in revenues.”
This yr alone, he enthused, an array of contracts have been signed with airways within the Center East, guaranteeing a brand new market of vacationers from the Gulf states.
True to type final week, black-windowed people-carriers shuttling new arrivals navigated Mykonos’s closely congested highway community, simply as they do each summer time. The champagne flowed at high-end eateries; fashionistas and TikTok influencers paraded by way of the city’s cobbled streets whereas outlets did a brisk enterprise promoting high fashion, and the clientele of celebrated homosexual venue JackieO’ loved sundown cocktails.
It's a microcosm of glamour and glitz that has managed to outlive alongside one other world inhabited by older generations of churchgoing locals, additionally to be seen on the city’s waterfront cafes.
However success has introduced medication, cash laundering, safety rackets and organised crime. The as soon as dirt-poor island ignited the nation’s tourism trade within the wake of its “discovery” within the Nineteen Fifties – by travellers visiting Delos, the close by island lengthy considered the traditional Greek world’s most sacred place – however is now coping with the results of overdevelopment.
“Our island is full, it has exceeded its limits,” says Marigoula Apostolou, president of the native folklore museum. “Our pure surroundings has been destroyed, our water and sewage infrastructure can't cope, and that's earlier than we even discuss in regards to the menace to our way of life by being branded a celebration isle.”
Mykonos, she mentioned, was much more than “eclectic menus and nightlife”. “We've got customs and traditions that also needs to be explored. Any additional so-called growth by overseas buyers is not going to solely pile on the strain however result in wholesale degradation.”
In her workshop within the city, Irene Syrianou is amongst these making an attempt to advertise Mykonos’s tradition by way of mosaics impressed by the magnificent examples discovered among the many ruins in Delos. Hers is a world of stone, far faraway from the island’s transformation into an upscale vacationer spot and VIP mecca. The daughter of a farmer, she worries more and more in regards to the pressures positioned on locals unable to afford inflated rents and grocery payments. Even seashores have been privatised by companies charging in extra of €70 (£60) for a solar lounger.
“A number of us have forgotten that we're the kids of people that have been poor,” she says, including that noise air pollution from bars had obtained so dangerous that locals had taken to petitioning the mayor. “Dwelling right here is difficult, the costs are runaway and residing circumstances robust for many who work seasonally. What none of us need is for our island to lose its soul, lose its character.”
In his workplace, mayor Koukas has a panoramic view of the hilltop reverse, one which was just about bereft of buildings when he was a baby however at present is a mass of villas, many geared up with cooks, concierges and masseuses primed to take care of the whims of footballers and different A-listers.
“Welcome to my world,” he retorts when requested in regards to the development of a very massive villa hewn into the hillside, following approval by a former tradition minister.
He too shares the priority that Mykonos might be lurching in the direction of saturation level after Greece’s pro-business authorities introduced it might be urgent forward with controversial plans to assemble gargantuan resort items within the identify of “strategic funding”. One mission backed by buyers in Abu Dhabi and Kuwait envisages the development of a small village with a port able to mooring superyachts.
“Mykonos has had its finest yr ever, vacationer arrivals are up by a minimum of 20%, however sustainable growth is our greatest downside,” Koukas admits. “We need to resolve our personal future as a local people … sure, we're a celebration island however Delos is correct subsequent door. Elon Musk visited it and we're very glad as a result of we’d additionally wish to be generally known as a centre of tradition tourism. The very last thing we wish is to lose our cultural id.”
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