Ancient Greek Drama and its Architecture as a Means to Reinforce Tourism in Greece

Abstract

It's broadly accepted that culture and especially antiquity has played a most important role in tourism policy development in Greece from early on and in comparison with other countries. Ancient architecture combined with cultural events has been one of the major elements of tourism policy. The combination of ancient theatre performances with archeological areas is one of the most appropriate applications of this approach. The objective of this paper is to explore the contemporary activity of ancient theatre as a means of tourism policy using culture as the principal asset. In order to evaluate the application of the approach in the past, a brief review of the use of the ancient theatre (performances in Greece and abroad) as a means of tourist attraction will be presented. What are the factors that make ancient theater interesting for tourism? Should an ancient Greek performance function autonomously or should it be included in a network of tourist services in order to become more attractive? What other possibilities for becoming acquainted with Greek culture does viewing an ancient theatre performance provide and what benefit does it offer as a tourism product? What promotion methods for ancient Greek theater have been applied to date by the tourism policy and what type of new media can be proposed?