Reimagining Greece: Tourism, modernization, and national identity

The Greek tourism industry experienced extraordinary growth in the second half of the twentieth century, expanding from approximately 30,000 arrivals in 1949 to over 36 million in 2024. Beyond its economic value, however, tourism’s significance is how it has been a lens through which Greece has been imagined and represented. This chapter explores the cultural and historical dimensions of Greek tourism, focusing on the ways in which the Greek destination was constructed by state authorities, local communities, and visiting tourists. The making of the tourist landscape in Greece involved multiple actors with diverse and at times competing interests, where international developments intersected with national aspirations, state bureaucracies, and private initiatives.

Particular attention is given to the central role of the Greek state, which developed a visual and textual language of tourism that emphasized distinctive cultural traits while simultaneously aligning with wider global trends. Concentrating on the decades following the Second World War, the chapter traces how elements of “Greekness” were mobilized as cultural markers to capture attention in changing international contexts. Traditional aesthetics and folklore were often juxtaposed with contrasting imagery, including abstract art, modernist design, and Western consumer influences. Tourism development during this period encompassed emblematic state-led modernist projects which both reflected centralized planning and Greece’s broader path of Westernization. By examining these representations, the chapter highlights how questions of continuity between antiquity and modern culture have been mediated through tourism, while also engaging with recent historiography that foregrounds diversity and plurality in the cultural politics of modern Greece.