Abstract
The Regional Unit of Kastoria is a rural area in Northwestern Greece, located on the borderline with Albania. Kastoria city, the capital and the largest city of the Kastoria Regional Unit, is known for the production of high-quality fur products. The fur industry has faced a marked crisis from the 1980s onwards, which has contributed to pushing the local economy towards the development of tourism. However, the tourism industry, developed during the last 20 years, has an undefined character. Specifically, tourism is characterized as small-scaled owing to the limited number of mainly domestic tourists, who, in combination with the economic crisis of the last decade, slowed down the initial accelerated trend. The purpose of this paper is to capture the opinions and attitude of Kastoria visitors towards tourism, as well as to illustrate the changes as a consequence of the economic crisis. In this context, a survey was carried out in two periods (in 2008 at the beginning of economic crisis and in 2017 at the end of this crisis) using a structured questionnaire and with a sample of 232 visitors in total. Our findings are highlighted in an effort for policy makers and marketing planners to formulate appropriate marketing strategies and to reconstruct and promote the local touristic product and attract visitors in these border areas.
Highlights
The special and alternative forms of tourism appeared in Greek reality during the 1980s, with a particular boom during the following two decades
This paper focuses on comparing Kastoria’s visitors’ views about the tourism product of the area before and at the end of Greek economic crisis, as well as identifying the resources associated with the attractiveness of the area that shape its tourism product
The present study is based on a survey that took place in Greece in two years, before the
Summary
The special and alternative forms of tourism appeared in Greek reality during the 1980s, with a particular boom during the following two decades. The development of alternative forms of tourism has been supported by both the investment support programs designed mainly by European initiatives and policies, and by the increasing life quality of. Each form of tourism usually emphasizes in specific resources or activities or interests and events that all result in the differentiation among them and the categorization of tourism (Belias et al 2017) at the base mainly of destination and tourism demand characteristics (Pearce 1989; Coccossis and Constantoglou 2006). The variety of special and alternative forms of tourism results occasionally in an overlap between the forms of tourism, of which not all are known to the general public (Kolokontes et al 2009).
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