2026 marks a turning point for Greece. After breaking post-pandemic visitor records, the country is increasingly seeking to diversify its tourism offer in order to counter overtourism on certain islands, such as Santorini and Mykonos. However, the season in Leros is expected to be very different.

Tourism professionals have been campaigning for years to extend the season and encourage mass tourism, which would be more profitable. However, no action has been taken to develop tourism on the island. Leros is not at all suited to mass tourism: the beaches are small, and the water and electricity infrastructure fails whenever there are slightly more visitors on the island.

The season used to begin around Easter, generally in April, and continue until the end of September. It now starts at the end of July and ends in mid-September.

The question is therefore: is it still worth coming to Leros on holiday with all these changes?

The Western Bourgeois-Bohemian Clientele Is Moving On

For visitors coming from Western Europe, Leros has to be earned. It is difficult to make the journey in a single day, with only one flight from Athens in the morning at 7:30 a.m. Sometimes there is a second flight in the evening at 6:30 p.m., but the aircraft has only 20 seats, making it difficult to find a place.

The Greek islands benefited greatly from the bourgeois-bohemian trend of the 1980s and 1990s, when spending a holiday in Greece was considered very fashionable. Today, visitors are more concentrated in the Cyclades, which are much quicker to reach from European capitals. The atmosphere there has become similar to Saint-Tropez.

Many island lovers invested in property in Leros. Some are now exhausted by the difficulties involved in carrying out even small repairs or maintenance work, faced with broken promises, unreliable appointments and excessively high prices.

For many years, Leros was fortunate to attract Western tourists, including many Italian and French bourgeois-bohemian visitors who admired the Greek lifestyle. Many of them bought houses on the island. However, spending a family holiday in Leros is difficult because the island offers virtually no activities for tourists. Young people no longer come to Leros for their holidays. In 2026, most of them did not come to the island, due to exorbitant prices, a lack of enthusiasm and the preferential treatment given to Turkish visitors.

The Decisive Turkish Shift in Leros Tourism

By contrast, Leros is increasingly focusing on attracting Turkish visitors, mainly from the nearby coastal region, who come for short stays, with drinking often presented as their main activity. As Muslims, they are generally less interested in Leros’s tourist monuments, which mainly consist of chapels.

A number of Turkish investors have established themselves on the island in order to develop tourism facilities. One of the perceived advantages of the Turkish clientele is that they generally prefer to leave little trace, while payments are often made in cash. As a result, this clientele receives considerable preferential treatment.

Tourism in Leros is undergoing a profound transformation.

The Special Visa and the New Turkish Tourism Flow

For the past three years, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has granted Turkish citizens access to a tourist visa limited to three days. Turkish ferry companies quickly seized the opportunity created by this new tourism offer, unlike the Greek companies. Since last year, two catamarans have therefore been arriving in Leros every morning and leaving again in the evening.

After disembarking from the catamaran, passengers should expect approximately three hours for customs procedures. The waiting area is in full sunlight, and the three-day visa costs €60, while the journey itself costs €80. It seems that, possibly in exchange for additional payment, there may be a way to extend the duration of the tourist visa. Time is money!

Prices in Greece appear to be much more attractive than those in the seaside resort of Bodrum, particularly in restaurants and bars. Alcohol is around six times cheaper, although Greek restaurant owners have obviously raised their prices in response to this new clientele, whose major advantage is that they pay in cash.

Hotels in Leros ask guests to check out very early in the morning, around 9 or 10 a.m., in order to accommodate the new arrivals. However, on the final day, since the catamaran leaves at around 4:30 or 5 p.m., Turkish tourists are left to themselves in the bars of Agia Marina because there is no luggage-storage service available to help them enjoy the day. As a result, they spend the day waiting in the bars of Agia Marina, where prices have also risen rapidly.

Tourism from the Turkish community is becoming organised through the exchange of recommendations on social media. Stays take place almost exclusively in Pandeli, and visitors hardly leave the area during their three-day visit. The small fishing port has been almost taken over, much to the delight of Pandeli’s shopkeepers.

Only the constant flow of taxis in the early evening transports customers from the boats anchored in the bay to Mylos Taverna or Harris Bar. Brand-new vans are now helping to make these journeys more efficient. Is this the beginning of a new organisation?

Will Leros become known as “Leros-Ta” in the near future? In view of the tidal wave of Turkish visitors and their appropriation of certain places on the island, such as Pandeli, the island’s tourism economy is already dependent on this sudden influx. This clientele may soon impose its preferences, prices and habits, just as Turkish influencers, who are particularly active on Instagram and TikTok, make recommendations for local establishments. With no strategy from the local businesses, these influencers have been able to act as they pleased.

This situation is also likely to become more pronounced in the future with the Turkish catamaran operator, which will impose its own conditions. This is what happens when hesitation continues for too long and when an important sector for the island is not properly developed.

However, there is one warning: Western visitors may not return. Leros will have to find a way to operate with its Turkish neighbours. The balance is fragile and dangerous, and the slightest event could change everything.

Turkish Tourism Investments Are Very Significant

Turkish investors, operating through offshore companies, have purchased numerous plots of land in Leros, including some very large properties. This could represent a genuine Trojan horse, with construction projects that began three years ago to develop tourist complexes featuring restaurants and bungalows.

It feels as though everything is being organised to accommodate a very large flow of tourists in these villages from next year onward, particularly in Blefoutis. This development is expected to increase significantly, even though the island’s water and electricity infrastructure is already completely overwhelmed during the summer.

Introducing mass tourism to Leros does not appear to be the best solution for the island and is causing deep concern among the local population.

There is no doubt that Turkish influencers have taken control of much of the communication and promotion. Very active influencers are promoting establishments in Leros across social media.

Unfortunately, there is also a strong impression that this new situation is completely beyond the municipality’s control.

Leros Tourist Attractions

Diving Tourism

In 2026, Leros’s main attraction lies in its underwater wreck heritage, which is unique in the Mediterranean. However, this does not seem to attract many tourists, since the diving club moved to another island for the summer of 2026 due to the low number of bookings.

Underwater natural and historical park: The island was the scene of the famous Battle of Leros in 1943 during the Second World War. The seabed is home to numerous aircraft wrecks, including German Junkers bombers and British fighter planes, as well as warships such as the destroyer HMS Intrepid and the Queen Olga.

In addition, the seabed has been damaged by fishermen and is completely uninteresting, even for snorkelling.

Development: Local and national authorities have recently relaxed the laws governing diving around historic wrecks in Greece. Leros has actively promoted the creation of themed diving routes, attracting divers from around the world, generally environmentally conscious visitors with significant spending power.

Historical and Architectural Tourism in Leros

Leros has a distinctive feature that sets it apart from traditional Cycladic architecture, with its famous white-and-blue houses:

Lakki, formerly Portolago: This town is one of the rare and largest examples of Italian Rationalist architecture, combining Art Deco and Bauhaus influences, outside Italy. Built during the Italian occupation of the Dodecanese under Mussolini, it now attracts architecture students, historians and art enthusiasts.

The fortresses: The Castle of Panteli, also known as Kastro, and the former Italian wartime tunnels, now converted into museums such as the Merikia War Tunnel, broaden the range of activities available beyond simple days at the beach.

Leros Tourism and Gastronomy

From May onwards, all restaurants increased their prices by more than 20%, just as they did last year. The increase is even more striking because nothing else has changed: the same terrace, the same plate, the same recipe. The comparison is therefore easy to make. In three years, a Horiatiki salad has risen from €6 to €10 for exactly the same dish, and possibly even a smaller portion.

The economic model of generating the entire annual turnover in 110 days has become completely outdated since the introduction of electronic tax reporting. Prices continue to rise, even though the cost of the service provided has long since been exceeded. The ingredients used in Greek dishes are not particularly expensive, and neither is their preparation.

And what about seafood? One might begin to doubt that we are actually on an island with numerous fishermen. Of course, fishermen and restaurant owners blame each other for this inflation.

The entire tax burden has been passed on to consumers, resulting in outrageous prices that very few local residents will be willing to pay once the tourist season is over.

To make matters worse, there was another special price increase in August. Since the season started very late, the businesses had to make up the difference somehow. Another aggravating factor was the large number of Instagram posts published by Turkish influencers comparing prices in Leros with those in Bodrum.

The result was a sharp rise in prices in Agia Marina, particularly for Turkish visitors who spend hours waiting for their boats to return.

A great memory of Leros, and have a safe journey home!