Nisyros belongs to the so-called infertile route’ of the Aegean; the term refers to islands of low development level and irregular connections to other islands and continental Greece. It is devoid of an airport; its small port cannot adequately ensure the safe transport of passengers and goods in case of adverse weather conditions.

The current standard of living on the island is higher that other similar islands, mainly due to the operation of the pumice quarry on Yali, 5 km NW of Nisyros. The production of the quarry is approximately 900,000 tons of top quality pumice stone, providing employment to 80 families and an approximate income of 1.5 m Euro to the municipality of the island. The second source of income is tourism.

The island has approximately 700 beds and may accommodate approximately 4,000 visitors per year for stays of several days. Nevertheless, the vast majority of Nisyros visitors stay for a mere few hours (approximately 160,000 people / yr). They arrive from neighboring Kos, tour to the center of the caldera to admire the intense hydrothermal activity and then return to Kos after a short trip to Mandraki, the island’s capital, to admire the excellent architectural quality of its old buildings. The volcano can bring visitors in, however it cannot assure their stay.

Nowadays, agricultural production is almost nil, whereas cattle breeding (i.e. meat, cheese, honey) and fishing products are abundant. The island’s energy requirements are 500 MW per year; power comes in through underwater cables from Kos; it is produced there from fossil fuels (diesel).
Annual water requirements amount to 100,000 cu. m. Most of the water was once transferred from continental Greece. Nowadays the island operates a seawater desalination plant (using the reverse osmosis method) with a daily capacity of 340 cu.m.

Regular operation could cater for all water requirements of the island. The lack of quarrying and industrial activities on the island and ‘moderate’ tourist development permitted the preservation of natural balance in Nisyros. The only – albeit serious – problem is uncontrolled cattle breeding activities. Free-grazing goat and pig populations increase and thus endanger the rich flora (and consequently the wild fauna) of the island. Serious efforts have been made during the last years to restrict free-bred animals; this has yielded some positive results.

Nisyros currently faces a turning point, ready to chart a course of future development. Aggressive tourism development is basically precluded for two reasons. The first is objective, and refers to its geographical location. Located between two over-developed tourism sites (Kos and Rhodes) and given its size and infrastructure as well as its development potential (lack of airport, restricted port support etc), it is not feasible to assure mass tourism. The second reason is that such a development would be a crime against the environmental equilibrium that has been preserved so far, a fact that would deprive the island of all its current visitors that have chosen it precisely for this characteristic.

Nisyros can afford and must promptly proceed with a high quality tourism development plan mainly by attracting alternative tourism (of nature-loving, geological, archaeological and medicinal type). Furthermore, actions must be initiated to reinvigorate farming, both in its traditional form as well as through modern production methods (greenhouses, for instance) to prevent unilateral economic development and to support high quality tourism.

It is also important to institutionalize incentives for cattle breeders and to enforce repressive measures in order to radically eliminate the damage caused by uncontrolled goat and pig grazing.

Utilization of renewable energy sources is an unavoidable prospect for Nisyros, as there is plenty of sun, wind and – most important – geothermy, capable of providing energy independence, low-cost energy and abundant, economic supply of potable water to the island through desalination.