Agritourism as a strategy of remote island’s development: the case study of Kasos

Abstract

In rural, depopulated areas, agritourism, as a development model, could serve the goal of non- exclusively seasonal tourism while creating additional economic opportunities for the locals who are mainly engaged in agriculture. Kasos is an isolated island of the Dodecanese, Greece, preserving interesting elements of the authentic agricultural practices and architecture like terraces serving the island’s agricultural cultivation, mills and mitata, small stone- built creameries. Kasos served as a case study of AEI program (Sustainable Development of Less Developed Regions and Isolated Areas by Creating New Touristic Resources and Products through Analysis, Documentation and Modelling of Cultural Assets using Innovative ICT Applications, project code:T2EDK- 01278). For thιs island that lies within the wider region of Rhodes, it is possible with the appropriate development of new touristic resources and products through the advancement of the unique architectural, cultural and environmental assets to orient towards them special parts of the touristic flow from Rhodes, creating new touristic activity by increasing the residence beyond the daily or short time tourism, as it stands for now. For the analysis of the study area, research in local archives and communication with the municipality and local stakeholders was conducted. Thus, both the special features of the island and the needs of the local community were identified, organized, classified and presented in GIS maps. The implementation of a GIS for Kasos Island aims to provide a comprehensive representation of the different aspects of the island, providing useful information for policy-making and the development of strategic cultural and agrotourism plans to the local authorities and stakeholders. According to the integrated plan for Kasos by AEI program, the island could preserve its special rural identity while revealing its cultural and environmental assets and attracting external economies within an agritourism model. In this work, we present AEI’s integrated plan for Kasos that refers to the island’s agricultural character, to the existing trail network as well as to the restoration and adaptive reuse of important architectural assets that could serve to the overall revealing of Kasos history and cultural reserve.