At first glance Hydra seems like paradise, it is a small beautiful island that has no cars, no airport, and all the restaurants and hotels are small businesses that are often family owned. So obviously my first impression of Hydra was that it was the perfect place as it was so beautiful and sustainable, but unfortunately after reading the article on Hydra I was wrong. I was stunned to learn that they burn all of their garbage, and these fires from summer can be seen until november. All the wastewater is dumped into the ocean at night, which pollutes the beautiful blue waters. 

As I mentioned Hydra is a gorgeous island with its natural beauty so it obviously attracts many tourists like myself but unfortunately the massive amounts of tourists are corrosive and destructive. Hydra is not sustainable and it promotes the island to its advantage at the price of the island’s sustainability. As a result of this only a small population benefits and gets wealthy while the other half is harmed because of tourism. The main employment relies on tourism which unfortunately pays low and is a seasonal occupation, other jobs on the island that have a low economic benefit such as fishing and agriculture are crashing because of the touristic jobs. Although tourism brings money most of it does not actually stay where it is generated. As this small island gets more popular there are plans to expand its ports and coastlines to bring in bigger cruise ships which will just cause more damage to the island, you can see how in Mykonos and Santonrini thousands of tourists flock the island everyday and prices increase and the authenticity of the island diminishes. 

As these issues rise the younger generations of Hydra can not see a future for themselves on the island but instead a place for the older folks to retire and live on. Unfortunately Hydra can not rely on the higher ups such as the government to come save the island from simply becoming economic profit but instead it needs help from the bottom up, of the people living there that want and need changes. 

As a tourist I loved visiting Hydra and appreciated it more than Mykonos as it was smaller, less touristy, and more authentic. I would love to visit Hydra again in the future and I do not want it to change and become more commercialized because I believe this will ruin the island and what many love about it.