Garitsa’s invisible marina
If the state collects the TEPAI (Recreational and Day-Trip Vessel Fee) fee from the vessels that fill Garitsa Bay every summer, it is reasonable to ask why none of this revenue is immediately returned to Corfu.
Garitsa Bay is not a marina. It has no jetties, no berthing spaces, no port services, and no organised management. And yet, every summer it operates as one of the largest informal marinas in the country. Dozens of tourist vessels remain at anchor offshore, while their passengers travel back and forth to the town several times a day on tenders and auxiliary boats that approach the “mayor’s steps” landing.
This image has become so embedded in the daily life of Corfu’s residents that they have almost stopped noticing it. And yet, it is an activity with significant economic, social, and environmental dimensions. The passengers of these vessels use public spaces, the road network, sanitation services, and the town’s infrastructure. The local market benefits from their spending, but at the same time the municipality and local society bear the cost of supporting them.
The paradox is that no one knows precisely the scale of this phenomenon. How many vessels are hosted in Garitsa each year? How many passengers disembark daily? What is their actual economic contribution? And how much revenue does the state collect from their presence through the Recreational and Day-Trip Vessel Fee (TEPAI)?
The debate opened by the ministerial decision on mooring buoys does not concern only the installation of floating pontoons or the organisation of anchoring. It touches on the more fundamental question of managing public maritime space. If Garitsa effectively functions as a tourist anchorage, who plans its future? The state, which collects the revenue? The municipality, which bears the consequences? Probably no one.
And how exactly is the town’s right to its waterfront—recently regained—defined?
Before any decisions on new charges, concessions, or organised mooring fields, something simpler is required: transparency. The town must know exactly what is happening in its bay, what the economic footprint of this activity is, and what benefits return to the local community. Otherwise, Garitsa will continue to function as an invisible marina—without rules, without data, and without public planning.
GIORGOS KATSAITIS
