Major change to swimming pools in Greece has tourists saying they’ll ‘book elsewhere’
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Around 4,500,000 Brits head to Greece each year for stunning views, delicious gyros and days lounging by the pool. But if you’ve got a holiday booked, you’ll want to take note of the proposed new changes to swimming pools in the country. Hotels may soon be filling their pools up with seawater, rather than freshwater, in a bid to tackle climate change.
![[Milos, Cyclades Islands, Greece]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/GettyImages-2155599181.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
Worsening drought conditions over the past two years have left the countryincreasingly parched, putting further strain on water supplies during the already busy summer months. Greece’s deputy minister of tourism, Elena Rapti, announced plans to tackle legal barriers on the use of seawater in private pools to conserve shrinking freshwater reserves.
Her remarks were later published on the Greek Parliament’s website. ‘This draft legislation regulates the framework for seawater extraction and pumping it for swimming pools. The focus, of course, is to conserve water resources,’ Rapti told a parliamentary committee.
It’s likely to be disappointing news for those who enjoy spending days on holiday hopping between the pool and their sunbed. ‘Well that would stop me from swimming,’ wrote Annie Bentley on X. ‘Salt blisters my skin so I’ll be booking elsewhere if that was the case.’.
Others have similar complaints about saltwater pools. ‘We had a salt pool in a lovely hotel we stayed in on Skiathos a few years ago,’ wrote a mum on Mumsnet. ‘I have to say I didn’t like it. I hate the feel of dried salt on my skin. I hardly swam that year because of this.’.
