Tourist police and nation-making in twentieth-century Greece (1935–1974)

This article investigates the role of the Greek tourist police from its establishment in 1935–1974, highlighting its crucial but overlooked contribution to the development of tourism and statecraft in the Mediterranean. Moving beyond ministries and promotional campaigns, the article argues that the tourist police operated at the grassroots level as enforcers of order, aesthetics, and ideology – key elements in the branding of Greece as a safe and civilised destination. Through archival and institutional sources, it shows how the tourist police mediated between hospitality and surveillance, as well as tourism and coercion, contributing to both domestic social disciplining and the state’s international image. From authoritarian modernisation under Metaxas to the postwar ‘reserved democracy’ and the 1967–1974 dictatorship, the tourist police exemplified how small Mediterranean states mobilised everyday state actors to project global relevance, manage internal difference, and construct national identity through tourism.