The worrying future of Greece’s most Instagrammable island

By Jessica Bateman

Agata Wagemaker stops to take a picture of a blue doorway. We’re wandering through the marble streets of Oia, a picturesque village on the Greek island of Santorini. Wagemaker is in her 30s and lives in Amsterdam. She has a full-time job in IT, but moonlights as a micro-influencer, sharing her holiday snaps with the 50,000 followers of her Instagram account, Windmill Dreams. She wanted to visit Santorini, which has been on her bucket list for years, before the summer crowds descend. It’s early April, so officially off season, but already large numbers of tourists are pulling out their selfie sticks.

If ever a place felt like it was made for Instagram, it is Santorini. The southernmost island in Greece’s Cycladic region, it is famous for its expansive sunsets and blue and white domed churches, both of which have become a common backdrop on many an influencer’s feed. Its dramatic cliff-face – actually a crater formed from a devastating volcanic eruption in 1600 BC – is almost guaranteed to make first-time visitors gasp and whip out their smartphones. I ask a pair of women in their 20s, who are taking it in turns to photograph each other, why they came to the island. “All the pictures on social media!” exclaims Fariah, who is from Paris. “I just wanted to see it for myself.”