Greece’s tourism sector faces the challenge of maintaining the country’s strong reputation while ensuring transparent pricing, effective enforcement and greater protection against increasingly digital forms of fraud.
As Greece heads into the peak summer tourism season, authorities are stepping up efforts to curb profiteering, tax evasion and increasingly sophisticated scams targeting visitors. While such problems are widespread across Mediterranean destinations, officials stress that Greece’s overall international tourism image remains strong.
Inspections by the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE) in July and early August at popular destinations including Mykonos, Paros, Rhodes, Corfu, Crete and Aegina found tax violations in 37.42% of food and entertainment businesses. Thousands of cases involving unissued receipts were recorded, resulting in heavy fines and 48-hour business suspensions.
Police have also arrested taxi drivers in Athens and at Lavrio port over excessive charges, including a reported €175 fare from the airport into the city. Some restaurants have likewise prompted complaints over unusually high bills for food and drinks without clear prior pricing.
Fraud is increasingly moving online. Police have dismantled networks operating cloned real-estate websites that collected thousands of euros in deposits for non-existent luxury villas in Santorini. Authorities have also issued warnings over spear-phishing attacks targeting hotels, in which criminals steal hotel credentials and send personalized payment requests to tourists through platforms such as Booking.com.
