Influencer Katie Giorgadze recently shared anInstagram video that showed dozens of people at a popularSantorini tourist spot.- Almost no one in the clip — taken at Oia Castle during sunset — appears to be wearing a mask.
- Giorgadze told Insider that she "was very shocked by the number of people at the location."
- But locals told Giorgadze, who says she was on a work trip, that the island was at 50% occupancy compared to last summer.
Watching the sun set into the sea from the village of Oia is at the top of every tourist's Santorini bucket list.
And although the global pandemic is still very much a reality, one
Katie Giorgadze, 27, shared an Instagram video with her 706,000 followers that showed dozens of people at the site. Almost no one appeared to be wearing masks.
"We went to watch the famous Santorini sunset," she wrote in the caption. "This is the behind the scene that most of the influencers didn't show you!"
Giorgadze — who runs a photo-editing and travel app — told Insider that she knew Oia Castle is one of the most popular places to watch the sunset in Santorini, so she was nervous about visiting the spot during a work trip with her husband.
"I knew that the crowds are insane and I didn't want to be stressed, so we preferred to stay at our hotel and enjoy the views," she said.
But Giorgadze, who is based in Paris, said many of the locals told her and her husband that the island was far emptier than usual due to the pandemic.
"They told us that the average occupancy on the island at the moment was about 50%, taking into account that the end of July is normally one of the busiest times of the year," she said.
Since there were far less tourists — plus no cruise ships — the locals said that this summer was actually "the best opportunity to enjoy Oia without crowds," Giorgadze added.
So, on their last night in Santorini, Giorgadze and her husband decided to give it a try and made their way to the castle.
"I must say, I was very shocked by the number of people at the location," Giorgadze said. "If it wasn't busy for locals, I can hardly imagine how busy it was in previous years."
Giorgadze said they arrived a little early, but she already saw tourists trying to secure spots and get in line for photos.
"Not a lot of travelers were wearing masks," she added. "That's why we decided to stay a little bit separately and to wait for the sun to disappear behind the horizon. Once the sun set in the sea, the majority of the people started leaving the castle and we could get closer to the view and take pictures stress-free."
Although she was somewhat overwhelmed by the crowds at Oia Castle, Giorgadze said she felt safe during her trip in Greece.
"The staff everywhere always wore masks and took all the necessary precautions all the time," she added.
But Giorgadze found that the safety precautions in
"We did a road trip in northern Italy and all the places we visited felt extremely empty no matter whether we were in small villages or big cities," she said. "We really felt like we were the only tourists. That's why we weren't expecting a lot of people in Santorini this year."
"If we compare the level of precautions taken in Greece with Italy, people on the streets were much more relaxed in Greece," she added. "Unlike Italy, wearing a mask was not forced on tourists inside buildings and on streets, but since everyone was keeping distance I guess it was OK — except during the sunset in Santorini."
Greece officially reopened its borders to European tourists on July 1, but it recently began announcing new restrictions as coronavirus cases started rising.
The country recorded 203 cases on August 9, its highest number of new daily COVID-19 cases since the pandemic first started. At the time of writing, Greece has had 8,819 coronavirus cases and 242 related deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine's COVID-19 dashboard.
Greece implemented a number of restrictions in over a dozen regions and municipalities — including Santorini — on Monday, including a ban on the operation of restaurants and nightclubs from midnight until 7 a.m. the next morning, and a cap of 50 people at all public events and gatherings.
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