Greece is braced for another bumper year. The tourists will not stop coming. For every one of its citizens, three foreign visitors – 32 million in total – will arrive this year, more than at any other time since records began.

It’s an extraordinary feat for a country that has battled with bankruptcy, at times has been better known for its protests and riots and, only three years ago, narrowly escaped euro ejection. Tourism is the heavy industry that has helped keep catastrophe at bay.

But is Greece almost too successful for its own good? Tourist numbers have increased by an additional two million every year for the past three years. Arrivals from China alone have doubled since 2017. But with forecasts predicting record numbers over the next decade, a growing number are asking: can Greece really cope?

The prominent environmentalist Nikos Chrysogelos says: “We can’t keep having more and more tourists.” He says he now shudders at the prospect of record numbers of arrivals. “We can’t have small islands, with small communities, hosting 1 million tourists over a few months. There’s a danger of the infrastructure not being prepared, of it all becoming a huge boomerang if we only focus on numbers and don’t look at developing a more sustainable model of tourism.”

Few would agree more than Nikos Zorzos, the mayor of Santorini. Last year, two million holidaymakers were drawn to the Cycladic isle, forcing Zorzos to limit cruise-ship passengers disembarking daily to 8,000 people.

A growing number of tourists are from the newly wealthy Asian middle classes, with many flocking to the destination to get married or renew vows against its backdrop of famous orange skies, white chalk houses, and the volcanic sea-filled crater.

The increase is such that local officials increasingly speak of tourism as more of a curse than a blessing. Authorities, fearing the strain that it puts on the natural resources and infrastructure of the island, have been sounding the alarm. Although the island is only 76km2 in size, more than 5.5million overnight stays were recorded there last year, with consumption levels of energy and water skyrocketing.

“It’s a radical rise and we are forever playing catch-up,” Zorzos lamented, rattling off the figures. “We have built numerous desalination plants and are in the process of erecting the biggest one in Greece, but in five years’ time I worry even that won’t be enough.”

Greece’s growing appeal as a global destination comes despite the rebound in popularity of Turkey, Egypt and other regional neighbours badly hit by security concerns.

Few would contend that the sector has not also been beneficial. At least one in five Greeks work in tourism. As the engine of an economy that has shrunk by more than 25% under fiscal retrenchment, tourism is among the few success stories of a country that came perilously close to insolvency during the euro crisis. Industry figures speak of foreign visitors as a lifejacket in the hardest of times. Tourism is the nation’s biggest foreign currency earner, generating nearly a quarter of its output.

The necessity to survive has made the sector more inventive. On the remotest of islands, boutique hotels and have begun to appear. For many, they are antidotes to the gruelling austerity that has been the price of emergency bailouts from Germany and other international creditors for propping up an economy encumbered by staggering debt.

The striking growth of tourist numbers is also the result of hard work. Greek officials have done much to improve services and, after decades of focusing on mass sun, sand and sea holidays, the industry has become more eclectic and diverse, with the season extending into the winter and spring. Asia has also been targeted, with bookings from China ballooning since direct flights between Athens and Beijing were launched last September.