Record beach concessions and inspections

Beach concessions to businesses reached a record 1,650 this summer, far higher than the initial estimate of 1,200 by the Ministry of Finance.

In another 150 cases, there were no concessions, either because there was not enough interest or because the chosen concessionaire backed away from the deal.

At the same time, complaints have soared about businesses violating the terms of their concessions, either by expanding their operations to areas not included in the concession terms or changing the nature of the business. In an extreme case, a businessperson who won a concession to operate a food cart on a public beach built installations for, and operated, a cafe-bar.

As a result, state and local governments conducted 10,000 inspections in July alone. The Finance Ministry announced that over 1,100 businesses have been inspected, including 290 in the past week. And while there were fewer violations, fines have so far exceeded €1.15 million.

In some cases, as on the island of Paros, businesses that operated illegally were forced to shut down, and someone who had put up and charged for umbrellas was forced to return the fees to unsuspecting customers and paid a fine of €51,000 on top of that. Authorities made extensive use of drones to detect violations. According to independent researchers, the prices paid by concessionaires to the state rose by an average of 18% per square meter.