A quiet Cycladic island poorly served by ferries and neglected by holidaymakers until the late 1980s, the Greek island of Amorgos became very popular with tourists from 1988 onwards. That year, the French film The Big Blue (Le Grand Bleu), directed by Luc Besson, was released. It sold 9.2 million tickets and became the best-selling film of the year at the French box-office. Filmed on Amorgos, it gave the island a great deal of publicity. In 2021, 80,400 tourists visited this small island of 2,500 inhabitants. There were only a few thousand a year before the film was released.