The mayor of Amorgos wants to expand the port of Katapola in order to receive bigger boats and cruise ships, build an automobile road by the seafront in an archeologically protected area and create facilities which will allow tourist sea planes. These plans will change the nature of the island aesthetically, practically and environmentally forever.

The island already has serious problems, garbage overflowing, sewage management and drain leaks (in the sea), plastic and sea pollution, lack of water, a decaying health centre, overworked locals in August (and no tourists in June), not to mention no fish in the sea. Instead of focusing on fixing these issues, and making Amorgos the paradise it once was, the mayor is proposing expensive plans which will bring even more people on the island and worsen all of the existing problems. 

The majority of the locals will not benefit financially from these plans because this type of tourist doesn’t spend much money on the ground. And even if the island becomes very popular, foreign businesses will come in and price out the local ones. The locals will lose their island, and the long time lovers of Amorgos who keep coming back year after year will stop coming. But more importantly, the biggest effect of such plans will be environmental. We’re meant to be moving towards a green economy, attract qualitative instead of quantitative tourism and create a new economy out of policies that protect our fragile ecosystem. The mayor’s plans go completely against all of this. Sign the petition and say no to the Katapola port expansion.