Greece enlists modern tech to fight against private beach occupiers

Drones in the sky and a citizen-reporting app on the ground are the arms against unbridled greed on the sand

To foreign tourists, it may not be immediately clear, but this summer on Greek beaches is already slightly different from the past due to a concerted crackdown on the efforts of bars and restaurants to privatize the sand strips. What’s more, technology, in the form of drones and apps, already plays a big part in this battle which pits the authorities and civil society on one side and the greedy concessionaires on the other.

What you need to know is that as per the Greek Constitution, all the coastline in the country is public land and belongs to the people. Private development and exploitation of the beaches is thus not only illegal but also anti-constitutional.

That, however, hasn’t stopped entrepreneurs from trying to build a property here and there or claim exclusive use of a sand strip by placing chairs and umbrellas to be rented out to unsuspecting tourists not versed in the loopholes of the Greek legal system.

Have you heard of the “Towel Movement”?

That’s why, at the start of the current summer season, the authorities announced they would be using drones to monitor whether the usage of the beach is adhered to the rules.

In reality, private actors do have the right to use a part of the beach under a concession from the government, but only if they follow certain conditions. These include the provision that only certain beaches can be put under concession, the mandate that only 50% of the beach can be occupied by rental umbrellas and sunbeds and the concession area cannot be greater than 500 square metres. What’s more, the concession area must be at least 4 metres from the water.

The amendments to the law (itself of dubious constitutionality) were prompted after residents of islands such as Paros began protesting last summer about the uncontrolled proliferation of privatizers, which had basically restricted free access to popular beaches. Think of it like France’s Yellow Vests but with towels. Actually, the protests were dubbed the “Towel Movement”.

Seeing that there was plentiful citizen discontent, the Greek government decided to harness that energy by launching the MyCoast app in May as a response. That digital tool lets beachgoers report any beach infractions on the part of unethical businesses directly to the authorities.

Thousands of such reports have already been accumulated prompting the government to issue 350,000 euros in fines in a recent crackdown. Still, there’s criticism that the authorities don’t inspect all reports, but on the bright side, there’s a promise that the app will also feature AI soon to make the sorting of a report’s viability easier.