Tourism In Greece Research Articles

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

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?

The virtual tourist gaze in Greece, 1897–1905

While travelling in Greece in 1892, a British tourist wryly commented on a group of tourists arriving in Athens who were travelling with nothing but a Baedeker guidebook and a pair of opera glasses (Armstrong, 1893). By 1892 tourist images were beginning to determine the benchmark for authentic vistas of Greece. This argument analyses an early technology for generating three dimensional images of Greece and the technological, ideological and discursive features that distinguish a particular iteration of the early tourist gaze. The study seeks to bring research from the humanities on tourism in Greece to a broader audience as a means of investigating the potential for more productive cross-flows in research covering tourism and the arts and humanities.

Demand for tourism in Greece: a panel data analysis using the gravity model

Tourism is one of the major drivers of the Greek economy. The contribution of tourism to the Greek economy has proved especially relevant during the period of the credit and euro crises with a high budgetary and balance of payment deficits. From that perspective this study examines the impact of the socio-economic and geographical determinants of foreign tourism demand in Greece. For the empirical analysis a panel dataset of 31 countries is used over the period 2001-2010. The panel data estimation indicates that distance and trade have more explanatory power than relative prices and other determinants such as transport infrastructure. Income is statistically significant in 3 out of the 8 specifications. Also political stability seems to play an important role in tourism demand. The results are mixed for the competitive prices between Greece and its main tourism competitors. An interesting finding is that the Olympic Games of 2004 seem to have had a negative impact on international tourist arrivals in Greece in that year.

Tourism Demand Forecasting Based on a Neuro-Fuzzy Model

Tourism in Greece plays a major role in the country's economy and an accurate forecasting model for tourism demand is a useful tool, which could affect decision making and planning for the future. This paper answers some questions such as: how did the forecasting techniques evolve over the years, how precise can they be, and in what way can they be used in assessing the demand for tourism? An Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) has been used in making the forecasts. The data used as input for the forecasting models relates to monthly time-series tourist arrivals by air, train, sea and road into Greece from January 1996 until September 2011. 80% of the data has been used to train the forecasting models and the rest to evaluate the models. The performance of the model is achieved by the calculation of some well known statistical errors. The accuracy of the ANFIS model is further compared with two conventional forecasting models: the autoregressive (AR) and autoregressive moving average (ARMA) time-series models. The results were satisfactory even if the collected data were not pleasing enough. The ANFIS performed further compared to the other time-series models. In conclusion, the accuracy of the ANFIS model forecast proved its great importance in tourism demand forecasting.

Cultural Tourism in Greece at a Time of Economic Crisis

Cultural Tourism in Greece at a Time of Economic Crisis

Youth Visitors' Satisfaction in Greek Cultural Heritage Destinations: The Case of Delphi

Greece is a country with significant cultural wealth, developed mainly as a mass destination. However, the existing mass form of tourism has become saturated, and the need to move to new markets by offering more diversified products is now imperative. Cultural tourism targeted at young people is a way to satisfy this need. Therefore, more emphasis has to be given to youth preferences. This paper examines the satisfaction levels that youth visitors attach to attributes of a major cultural destination, the archaeological site of Delphi in Greece. The study was based upon quantitative research, through the use of a self-administered questionnaire submitted to people between 15 to 35 years old. Results show that youths are important consumers of culture. They are satisfied with the basic attributes of the site such as monuments, landscape, and accumulated experience. On the other hand, they are less satisfied with man-made interventions such as facilities, amenities, and operational features. The study also indicates that youth visitors of Delphi have different backgrounds than the tourists of Greece in general. Overall, it is concluded that the core assets for developing cultural tourism in Greece, such as the sites and their monuments, are existent and satisfy youth travellers. However, attention must be paid to the effective marketing management of Greek cultural heritage destinations in order to optimise their tourism potential. Therefore, the implications of the study suggest that tourism policy-makers need to recognise youths as a vital segment with great potential regarding cultural tourism and to concentrate on markets that respond positively to cultural heritage destinations.

Study of the major supply factors and business choices affecting the growth rate of wine tourism in Greece

Wine tourism is considered one of the alternative forms of tourism internationally. Wine tourism combines wine production with tourism activities, mainly in agricultural areas, as it embraces the tourism interest for wine production and the enjoyment of vineyard activities by the tourists. Greece, as a well-known tourist destination, is actually a new wine tourism area that has still a long way to go before claiming that it can render high-quality services in this very competitive sector. The objective of this paper is to examine and present the extent of wine tourism development in Greece, the characteristics as well as the main business choices related to wine tourism supply, aiming at highlighting the necessary key elements that can play a decisive role in its further growth. In terms of this paper, we attempt to examine the Greek wine producer's viewpoint of wine tourism by setting out data related to the development of the product, the satisfaction of businessmen involved, the means used to promote the product, the difficulties faced by and the expectations set by wine producers. In order to achieve the aforementioned goals, a research was conducted by means of a constructive questionnaire sent to all major Greek wine producers from April to June 2007. The participants in the wine tourism industry in the country were considered a major source of information.

Merging Culture and Tourism in Greece: An Unholy Alliance or an Opportunity to Update the Country's Cultural Policy?

In 2009, the socialist government of Greece (PASOK) joined for the first time the portfolios of culture and tourism, establishing the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The discourse supporting and contesting the merger, as well as the merger's implications, are explored from a cultural policy perspective, through an analysis of the statements and policies issued by the government on the issue during its first year in office. The challenges created by the merger concern policymakers internationally, as they echo increasing tensions between socio-cultural and financial objectives as a result of worldwide convergence of cultural and economic spheres.

The attraction of islands: travellers and tourists in the Cyclades (Greece) in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries

Islands have long acted as projection surfaces of ever-changing desires. Tourism organisations have drawn most vigorously upon the paradise metaphor in an attempt to position modern island holidays at the forefront of our minds – regardless of an island's location. Tracing the most recent history of our island-longing and illuminating the use of the island metaphor by tourist organisations is the aim of this article. A short account of the history of tourism in Greece (especially the Cycladic Islands) provides the backdrop to an in-depth picture and text analysis of nine official English and German tourist guides to the Cyclades, as well as the English-speaking version of the official Cyclades website. Images and text are coded according to pre-determined themes and contrasted with each other. Investigating islands from the perspective of tourists and tourist organisations, it becomes apparent that the official brochures draw on established island tropes and stereotypical island imagery as a means to attract travellers, and thus follow a long-established pattern of what Western culture considers unique for island locations. Dissonances, however, are emerging as our longing for island locations is contradicted by our need for ease and speed of access, thus negating the sought-after quintessential ‘islandness’.

Which factors affect the willingness of tourists to pay for renewable energy?

This study presents insights into the determinants of tourists’ intention to pay a premium for accommodation in a hotel with renewable energy sources. The empirical analysis is based on the estimation of binary logistic regression models. Four subsets of independent variables were used in this empirical analysis, namely: (i) demographic factors, (ii) economic variables, (iii) past experience with regard to renewable energy sources, and (iv) variables regarding environmental awareness and information dissemination. Empirical results suggest that middle-aged people are probably more willing to pay for their stay in a hotel using renewable energy. In general, men are more likely than women to pay extra money for accommodation in a “green” hotel. However, the results suggest that marital status and educational level are not statistically significant factors in the willingness to pay more. Rather, environmentally-conscious and adequately informed tourists are more willing to pay for renewable energy than others. Our analysis is focused on intention because we expect that those people willing to pay for staying in a green hotel are a potentially relevant market segment for developing sustainable tourism in Greece.

Detection of a VIM-27-Producing Klebsiella pneumoniae Isolate in a Patient following Surgical Tourism in Greece

Very recently, Papagiannitsis et al. described VIM-27, a new metallo-β-lactamase (MBL) single-point variant of VIM-1, identified in three Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates of sequence type 147 (ST147) recovered at three different Greek hospitals ([6][1]). We report here that VIM-27-producing K.

Mapping of the Current State of Diving Tourism in Greece

Mapping of the Current State of Diving Tourism in Greece

Social learning and sustainable tourism development; local quality conventions in tourism: a Greek case study

This paper presents the trajectory of an innovative organisational scheme, the Local Quality Convention (LQC), concerning sustainable tourism development in the Lake Plastiras area, a less favoured area in Central Greece. It outlines the development issues of the area, the main actors, their views and practices and describes the creation, progress and emerging problems of the LQC scheme. Research reveals contradicting approaches to sustainable tourism development which, in turn, influenced the LQC's evolution. The findings are critically discussed in the light of the Social Learning (SL) approach to social change and sustainable development. According to SL it is only through interactive (participative), concerted action that stakeholders are able to co-construct an issue and its solutions. Given the dominance of “conventional” tourism in Greece as well as the top-down formation and implementation of policies, the importance of the long term facilitation of local stakeholders to achieve sustainable tourism development is demonstrated, along with other related lessons for planners and managers.

Women's Entrepreneurship and Rural Tourism in Greece: Private Enterprises and Cooperatives

Women's entrepreneurship in the Greek countryside has been expressed in two forms of agro-tourism business: private and cooperative. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the differences between these two forms with regard to the characteristics of the businesses and women entrepreneurs alike. The research was based on personal interviews with 199 women and the results of the survey confirm the existence of significant differences between the two forms of enterprises. The woman who selects the cooperatives is not very young, has relatively little education, is uncertain and hesitant, while the woman who chooses the private form of enterprise is younger, better educated and has greater self-confidence.

Recent development and prospects of qualitative tourism in Greece: a statistical approach

The paper examines the evolution and structural characteristics of high-class tourism in Greece. Furthermore, it is an attempt to find out the typical profile of the tourist that prefers this country as a tourist destination. Using official monthly data for the period 1999-2002, parametric and non-parametric statistical tests are applied. Analysis has shown that, despite the considerable increase of high-class tourism, Greece is still a middle and low-class summer seaside tourist destination, attracting tourists rather from Europe than from Northern America or Asia. Due to income increases and their preference for short but qualitative holidays, Greek tourists have reinforced high-class tourism.

Crafting a policy framework of indicators and quality standards for rural tourism management

The lack of a national quality policy framework for rural tourism in Greece led to setting standards according to personal experiences and different definitions of quality. This paper makes a contribution by acknowledging what rural tourism quality should be, in terms of the most important quality indicators evaluated according to visitors' norms. Study findings show that quality is safeguarded when standards for leisure activities are met and localities are protected. Using this framework, managers can balance high demands and pursue excellence and decision-makers can establish policies for better planning and management of quality in rural tourism.

The Impact of Maritime Tourism on the Greek Economy via the Tourism Satellite Account

Maritime tourism is a special interest tourism, showing significant demand increase worldwide. The activities of cruising, yachting and coastal tourism shipping constitute the Greek market of maritime tourism. The aim of this paper is to estimate the economic impact of the maritime tourism industry on the major macroeconomic factors of the Greek economy. The Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) has been applied by several countries to estimate the economic impacts of the traditionally designated tourism related industries, as well as all industries participating in the tourist economy (Strathclyde University,2004), but not for the economic effects of special interest tourism, as maritime tourism. Up until today there has not been any application of the method in Greece neither for the total tourism industry, nor for a specific tourism “sector”. The investigation of the theoretical and empirical frames of maritime tourism in Greece as well as the adaptation of Tourism Satellite Account tables, are a preconditioned fulfilment of the research. Since the TSA tables require information with economic value, which is not found in the recorded data by many public services, primary research has been conducted in order to collect necessary data. The data obstacle became higher since maritime tourism is not an immiscible activity but a combination of other sectors that's why the overall estimation and evaluation of the sector demands data from different but related sources. The paper concludes by presenting the final results of the economic impacts of maritime tourism on the major macroeconomic values of the Greek economy.

Sport tourism in Greece

Sport tourism in Greece

Tourism in Greece: Strategic Analysis and Challenges

This paper provides a strategic analysis of the competitiveness of Greek tourism. It illustrates the importance of tourism as an economic activity and analyses the current situation and structural problems of Greece as a destination. Although Greece offers unique nature, culture and heritage, the lack of differentiation of the tourism product as well as competitive disadvantages in marketing and planning cause an over-dependence on intermediaries for the promotion and distribution of the tourism product whilst jeopardising its quality. This affects the profitability and competitiveness of both the destination and its small and medium-sized tourism enterprises. The paper proposes a grand strategy as well as numerous strategic directions, objectives and tasks aiming to demonstrate the way ahead for Greek tourism. Several major opportunities emerge through the Olympic Games in 2004 as well as the major projects currently being undertaken which will enhance the infrastructure of the country. It is argued that a consistent tourism policy based on professional development and implemented through a Master Plan is urgently required. Strategies and methodologies need to be identified, whilst private enterprises need to increase their cooperation locally in order to enhance the quality and competitiveness of the product.

Domestic Tourism in Greece and Special Interest Destinations: The Role of Alternative Forms of Tourism

ABSTRACT The present paper aims at presenting the results of recent research concerning the quality characteristics of domestic tourism in Greece. In the first part of this paper, an analysis of the basic characteristics of travels affected by Greeks, is presented using the data drawn from an empirical study carried out in 1999 on behalf of the Greek National Tourism Organization (EOT) and data of other—international and Greek—research. In the second part, the most recent dominant tendencies of domestic travels are pointed out and an examination of those in particular related with travels to special destinations is made. In the final part, a presentation of the characteristics of domestic tourism travels affected by Greeks to special destinations related with five special and alternative forms of tourism is made.