Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Popular tourist destinations in Greece are struggling with overcrowding.</li><li>Athens is plagued by high rents and short-term rentals, while the islands contend with cruise ships.</li></ul>An anti-cruise rebellion is afoot in popular tourism destinations in Greece.Boats full of tourists who arrive on the island, crowd the streets, and leave trash have led to the "worst season" ever, locals say.It's a story mirrored across Europe this summer, with anti-tourist protests breaking out in famous hot spots.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-of-protesters-rallying-against-overtourism-in-barcelona-2024-7">In Barcelona</a>, locals have sprayed holiday-makers with water pistols and shouted at them to go home, blaming them for the city becoming unlivable due to high rent prices and apartments being turned into Airbnbs.In Athens and Greek islands, such as Santorini, there's a similar sentiment growing.<h2 id="361e29f8-09c9-466c-953e-69689735c123">Crowded monuments</h2>Vivian Antypa, an archaeologist and tour operator in Athens, told Business Insider that she loves working in tourism and meeting people from all over the world. But her job has become "challenging" recently."The government hasn't put any limitations to the number of people that can visit the monuments," she said, except for the 20,000 person cap to the Acropolis, which was <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.euronews.com/travel/2023/08/03/greeces-acropolis-cap-on-daily-visitors-and-staggered-entry-times-starting-in-september">implemented last year</a>.All the other archaeological sites in the city are "extremely crowded," Antypa said."This, of course, affects the quality of our work, the experience of the people," she said. "It can be dangerous due to the hot Greek weather."The number of tourists visiting Greece increased by 120% between 2019 and 2023, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://fortune.com/europe/2024/07/09/mayor-of-athens-overtourism-greece-not-viable-visitor-tourism-economy/">Fortune reported</a>, with 33 million tourists heading to the country last year.Antypa said overtourism in Athens is a problem because the city can't accommodate the large numbers of people in the high season.As a result, the center is full of traffic and crowds, which makes it <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxXnr-nRcwU">hard for locals</a> to live their daily lives.<div type="image" title="Tourists at the Propylaea, the entrance of the Athenian Acropolis." height="1500" width="2000" msid="112347386" hostid="261" sizebytes="233924"></div>There are also not enough establishments to accommodate all the people, which has boosted the short-term rental market."That has caused a big disruption for the locals," Antypa said. "People cannot find apartments for long-term renting, and the ones that can be rented are usually extremely overpriced and in poor conditions."<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/real-estate/1237905/why-are-rental-rates-skyrocketing/">According to the Greek news outlet Kathimerini</a>, investors are turning entire apartment blocks in Athens's districts of Pangrati and Koukaki into short-term rental units.Rental rates in Pangrati have increased by 14.3% compared to last year, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.tovima.com/finance/greek-property-market-surge-piraeus-leads-nationwide-price-increases-in-q2-2024">the Greek newspaper To Vima reported</a>. House prices are also soaring, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-17/why-athens-home-prices-are-rising-faster-than-other-european-cities">according to Bloomberg</a>.Tourists and locals are equally disappointed in the ramifications of over-tourism, Antypa said, which "sets the standards of the Greek hospitality way back."On TikTok, there's a heated debate between vacationers and locals at top tourist sites. Visitors complain about crowds and dirty streets and share their disappointment about their trip not meeting their expectations. In response, locals call them out for being "ungrateful" and implore them to consider their part in it all.Tourist activities make up 25-30% of the Greece's GDP. Harris Doukas, the mayor of Athens, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.euronews.com/2024/07/08/overrun-athens-how-the-greek-capital-is-finding-solutions-to-the-tourist-influx">told Euro News</a> that "Each visitor brings €0.40 to the city.""And we haven't seen this money yet," he said. "We need sustainable tourism that doesn't worsen city inequalities."<h2 id="3fabe98d-4c04-4ec8-981f-edecb0962ad4">A crackdown on cruises</h2>Antypa said <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cruise-ships-environmental-impact-tourism-2019-9">cruise ships</a> are a big part of the problem. People aboard follow "a very specific pattern" in Athens, where they arrive very early in the morning and head straight to the landmarks. This causes traffic, queues, and "horrific crowds," she said.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/syros-greece-underrated-better-than-mykonos-santorini-what-to-do-2024-4">The islands</a> are also impacted. Nikos Drosos, a tour guide who owns the Santorini-based travel company Santo Luxury Escape, told BI, "This is one of the worst seasons that the island has had right now.""There are a lot of cruise ships and a lot of people, like 15,000 per day," Drosos said.When they arrive, the main streets are packed with buses, and people leave behind "a lot of garbage," Drosos said."Because they eat on the ship, they don't buy any souvenirs or eat in the restaurants," he added. "That's the problem for us here."<div type="image" title="A ship full of tourists socks in Santorini." height="3515" width="5272" msid="112347392" hostid="261" sizebytes="751520"></div>Drosis believes there wouldn't be an overcrowding problem if more people stayed on the island for a few days at a time."In fact, we want the people to stay more on the island," he said.<h2 id="256be5cb-54bc-402a-b01d-11950f0c69ca">Priced out</h2>The answer may not be so simple, though, as islands, including Santorini and Mykonos, have become more expensive due to their idyllic landscapes and Instagrammable views, leading to an influx of designer stores <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/where-to-stay-in-santorini-greece-best-hotels">and even a Nobu</a>.Those who may wish to come may not be able to afford a stay there."There is a real problem when locals, both those that live in a place year-round or wish to visit family and friends, are priced out," Richard Krieger, the director at Sky Vacations, told BI. "You only have to look at the prices of hotels and accommodation in the most well known places in Greece to see how expensive things have become."He added that it's not just the most famous destinations. Small towns like Katakolon in the Peloponnese can become "a nightmare when ships pull in and the crowds pour into the streets," Krieger said.Antypa said she has heard similar stories in her industry, and that the majority of visitors on the islands are not spending money there."The islands have started to lose their authenticity, their individualistic fingerprint," she said.<div type="image" title="Tourists taking photos in Santorini" height="2930" width="4395" msid="112347388" hostid="261" sizebytes="653516"></div>Krieger said implementing fees that support the tourism infrastructure and promoting the entire country as a destination is part of the solution."Our collective effort is needed to ensure that the beauty of the country remains unharmed and that by visiting in a responsible manner, we support local communities and help them thrive," he said.In June, Greece's prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-06-14/greece-prime-minister-ready-to-cap-cruise-ships-at-most-popular-islands?sref=PKlsHl88">told Bloomberg</a> the country was <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/greece-restricting-cruise-ship-santorini-mykonos-tourist-compaints-2024-6">moving to limit the number of cruise ships</a> allowed to stop at the most popular islands.Drosos said this will be "good in some ways.""It's going to be better for some people," he said. "The big tour companies with the big buses, I don't think they're going to like it, but it's for their own good, for everyone."Antypa said a response "is just a response," and she wants to see the government take the next step by committing to sustainable growth and protecting Greece's environment and culture."This has been the goal of many European countries for years," she said. "If the government takes action toward the right direction, we can make tourism better for the tourists and the locals."

Greece is in the middle of an anti-cruise rebellion, with locals complaining about over-tourism and trashed streets

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Politicians and judges are increasingly facing intimidation via "swatting" attacks.</li><li>Swatting is when a person calls in a threat to prompt police to raid a target's home or workplace.</li></ul>Elected officials across the political spectrum are facing increased swatting threats, phoned in from unknown perpetrators seeking to terrorize government workers, in what one expert in authoritarianism told Business Insider is evidence of our democracy declining.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/what-is-swatting">Swatting</a> is an intimidation and harassment tactic characterized by a person or multiple people acting together to report a false threat to law enforcement, such as a mass shooting or hostage situation, prompting police to forcefully raid a target's home or workplace to stop the imaginary crime.Recent swatting calls targeting Republicans like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-swatted-on-christmas-georgia-rome-police-2023-12">Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene</a> and Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, as well as Democrats like Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/police-responded-bomb-threat-home-judge-trump-fraud-trial-2024-1">Judge Arthur Engoron</a> — who is overseeing the New York fraud case against Donald Trump — demonstrates a marked escalation in a trend experts have been <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-judges-threats-courts-scotus-2022-10">warning about for years</a>.Ruth Ben-Ghiat is a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University and the author of "<a target="_blank" href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324001546">Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present</a>," which examines how autocratic leaders stay in power by utilizing the power of corruption, violence, propaganda, and machismo. She told Business Insider that the increasing spate of swatting attempts is an intensification of anti-government extremism plaguing the country.No official statistics are publicly available regarding how many swatting calls occur a year, but <a target="_blank" href="https://www.economist.com/united-states/2019/01/12/swatting-could-become-a-federal-crime">The Economist</a> reported in 2019 that a former FBI swatting expert estimated that "annual swatting incidents have climbed from roughly 400 in 2011 to more than 1,000." An FBI report reviewed by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/swatting-attacks-public-officials-targeted/">CBS</a> indicated there may be more than 500 recorded swatting calls nationwide since May of 2023."These are tactics that terrorists have used in the past to disseminate chaos and fear with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/threats-federal-judges-swatting-suspicious-packages-powder-marshals-court-security-2022-10">fake bomb threats</a> — they're not new tactics," Ben-Ghiat told BI. "But what seems to be very prominent now is they're being directed toward politicians of both parties and also judges who are involved in prosecuting Trump and his co-conspirators in some way."There's a logic behind the orchestrated threats, Ben-Ghiat said, which is to create a sense of chaos and fear, exhaust the resources of law enforcement, and, most alarmingly, intimidate politicians into abiding by extremists' wishes or turning a blind eye to their violent grabs for power in fear they'll be targeted.<h2>A threat turned lethal</h2>Forcing targets to have extremely stressful encounters with police isn't just an emotional threat — swatting incidents can also turn deadly. While not politically motivated, a 2017 incident involving a dispute over the video game "Call of Duty: WWII" left a man dead after police responded to a swatting call with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/man-who-made-hoax-call-in-deadly-swatting-seeks-20-year-term-2019-2">lethal force</a>.The victim in the 2017 case, Andrew Thomas Finch, was not related to the initial online dispute between gamers Casey Viner and Shane Gaskill. Rather, police responded to Finch's home after Gaskill offered Viner a false address in response to Viner's threats to have Gaskill swatted, saying he'd "be waiting."Viner then had a friend, Tyler Barriss, call Wichita police claiming to be a man named Brian, falsely telling authorities he'd had killed his father and was holding his family hostage at the address given by Gaskill. Less than 10 seconds after Finch exited his home with his hands up, he was shot and killed by police.The Wichita police indicated in a statement at the time that the shooting was prompted by Finch reaching toward his waistband, and the city council indicated a willingness to revisit training procedures in the wake of the incident.Barriss was ultimately sentenced to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fatal-call-of-duty-swatting-incident-20-years-sentence-convicted-2019-3">20 years in prison</a>. Viner was sentenced to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/police-solutions-swatting-prank-calls-2020-10">15 months</a>.<h2>Swatting is now increasingly political</h2>While both Democrats and Republicans have been targeted in recent swatting attempts, Ben-Ghiat says the threats are really against the political establishment."The thing about these threats is, whatever form they're taking, they normalize the idea of threatening public officials," Ben-Ghiat told BI. "And this is very important: the more these attempts happen, the more others are encouraged to mimic. It's the same with mass shootings; there are copycats."Ben-Ghiat pointed to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-rhetoric-mirroring-nazi-fascism-hitler-expert-warns-2023-11">former President Donald Trump's increasingly extreme rhetoric</a> as a method to communicate to the public that no one is off limits — that even elected officials and judges can be threatened — which she said is a hallmark of authoritarianism and a likely cause in the increasing threats."We're seeing a kind of degradation of the fabric of civil society," Ben-Ghiat said. "In normal times when democracy is more robust and you don't have demagogues preaching violence or <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/official-if-trump-marched-capitol-january-6-been-an-insurrection-2022-7">inciting coups</a> and sending politicians of both parties running for their lives, there's a kind of a check on such behavior."She added: "But what Trump has done by energizing every kind of extremist, by saying he could stand on Fifth Avenue and shoot someone, he's given permission to all kinds of extremists to take actions, and he's rewarded those actions rhetorically, he's never condemned such actions."<h2>The goal is to keep critics quiet</h2>According to Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, some Republicans who've privately condemned Trump's behavior have kept their concerns quiet due to threats that have been made against people who stand up against him, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/romney-gop-members-feared-far-right-violence-ahead-key-votes-rcna105272">MSNBC</a> reported.And that's the point, Ben-Ghiat said."Anybody can be a target now, any elected official, any public official, any election worker," Ben-Ghiat said. "And so the ultimate goal is to make people self-censor, to make people compromise and not do their job because they're worried about their children — and autocrats always do things to make you self-censor."Many times, the high-profile people targeted by swatting also face <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/liz-cheney-security-detail-death-threats-trump-impeachment-criticism-2021-6">other kinds of threats</a> simultaneously, Ben-Ghiat said, and it's impossible to track the exact number of incidents because they aren't always publicly reported — so it's probably happening much more than we think.Republicans in particular, in addition to possible threats against their safety, may also be holding their tongues due to fear their careers may be in jeopardy if they stand up against Trump, Ben-Ghiat said, pointing to ousted <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/liz-cheney-disinvited-trump-white-house-holiday-party-2020-election-2023-12">Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney</a> as an example.But the author and professor, who herself has been threatened by Trump's supporters, has harsh words for the people who refuse to stand up against him anyway."A lot of Republicans secretly are very afraid, that's why they're really silent: they've been threatened," Ben-Ghiat said. "And they're, in my opinion, huge cowards because they're the ones who could lead a different path for the Republican Party, and yet they choose to remain silent."<h2>Resistance isn't futile</h2>Ben-Ghiat said it would take a unified Republican front to push back against Trump's rhetoric and help re-establish <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kissinger-us-democracy-in-great-danger-due-to-income-inequalities-2023-11">democratic norms</a> that would ensure the safety of elected officials. However, "that's not going to happen," she said.If Trump becomes the GOP nominee for president in 2024, Ben-Ghiat said the potential likelihood of continued political violence, not just threats, sharply increases."We know that if there are mass protests, for instance, the military or <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oath-keepers-the-far-right-militia-tried-to-overthrow-democracy-2022-12">organized militias</a> against civilians, there's a huge potential for violence, and there are people who are waiting to have this kind of violence, so that's very scary," Ben-Ghiat said. "The other scenario is if Trump loses and, just like January 6, which was a leader rescue operation where his people were rescuing their distressed leader, violence would be likely then."Because <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/economist-intelligence-unit-2017-democracy-index-worst-countries-2018-1">authoritarian leaders</a> bank on their opponents becoming disenchanted with the system and, due to either fear or apathy, giving up the fight against them, it makes standing up publicly and continuing the fight all the more important, Ben-Ghiat said."That's what Trump does 24/7, hammering the idea 'We're coming for you, don't resist, we're coming for you,'" referring to his administration and supporters, Ben-Ghiat told BI. "And so it's very important, and the history of authoritarianism shows us this, to not believe those things."She added: "There are big problems right now, it's very volatile right now. But one of my mantras is never to underestimate the American people — because people thought Trump would win in 2020, too."

Politically motivated 'swatting' incidents reveal how common anti-government terrorism is becoming, expert warns

Thai activists burn chilies in anti-government protest with APEC summit underway

You Searched For "anti government protests" and got 3 results

Greece is in the middle of an anti-cruise rebellion, with locals complaining about over-tourism and trashed streets

Lindsay Dodgson

Politically motivated 'swatting' incidents reveal how common anti-government terrorism is becoming, expert warns

Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert

Thai activists burn chilies in anti-government protest with APEC summit underway

Business Insider

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides