Editing Santorini (section)

=== Post-war ===
In general, the island's economy continued to decline following World War II, with a number of factories closing as a lot of industrial activity relocated to Athens. In an attempt to improve the local economy, the Union of Santorini Cooperatives was established 1947 to process, export and promote the islands agriculture products, in particular its wine. In 1952, they constructed near the village of Monolithos what is today the island's only remaining tomato processing factory. The island's tourism in the early 1950s generally took the form of small numbers of wealthy tourists on yacht cruises though the Aegean. The island's children would present arriving passengers with flowers and bid them happy sailing by lighting small lanterns along the steps from [[Fira]] down to the port, offering them a beautiful farewell spectacle. Once such visitor was the actress [[Olivia de Havilland]], who visited the island in September 1955 at the invitation of Petros Nomikos.<ref>{{cite book |last=Amburn |first=Ellis |title=Olivia de Havilland and the Golden Age of Hollywood |location=Lanham, MD |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |date=2018 |page=241 |type=Hardback |isbn=978-1-4930-3409-3}}</ref>

In the early 1950s, the shipping magnate Evangelos P. Nomikos and his wife Loula decided to support their birthplace and so asked residents to choose whether they wanted the couple to pay for the construction of either a hotel or a hospital, to which local authorities replied that they would prefer a hotel. 

In 1954, Santorini had approximately 12,000 inhabitants and very few visitors. The only modes of transport on the island were a jeep, a small bus and the island's traditional donkeys and mules.