The popular tourist destination Acropolis in Athens has introduced private visits for 5,000 euro, equivalent to around 57,000 kronor – a move that is upsetting among guards.
These visits will take place outside of normal opening hours and will be limited to groups of no more than five people, according to an official website. Normal visits cost 20 euro.
The first private visits took place on Saturday for a Russian couple with their private guide.
The union representing guards at archaeological sites opposes private visits and claims to have received inadequate information about how the visits are organized.
Last year, the record for the number of visitors was broken – four million – with up to 23,000 visitors per day during the summer, which led the tourist destination to introduce time-limited visits.
Greece's government has also been accused of increasingly trying to privatize the management of the country's museums.