Linking Culture and the Environment

66 Sustainable Tourism Development on a ‘Mediterranean Isle’
In the proposed model the first row represents the visibility of each set of
stakeholders in the tourist destination. Subsequent rows reflect the economic,
environmental and sociocultural priorities of these players, their time perspectives,
their level of support for regulatory instruments, their respective
attitudes towards tourism development and (where appropriate) their overall
views regarding sustainable development. Further, the conceptual model
can either apply longitudinally to a single destination as it progresses through
its own life cycle, or describe cross-sectionally, for a single point in time, three
separate localities (in different parts of the island), each of which has reached
a distinct stage of tourism development. It is assumed that, regardless of the
level of tourism development at an individual locality, the overriding national
and/or regional (island-wide) policies are dictated by the present state of the
parent destination’s resort cycle. For instance, while many Mediterranean
islands (e.g. Corfu, Crete, Cyprus, Malta, Mallorca and Rhodes) display overall
characteristics placing them in the consolidation, stagnation or early rejuvenation
stage (Ioannides, 1994; Bruce and Cantallops, 1996; Loukissas and
Triantafyllopoulos, 1997), they each contain localities that have not yet taken
off as tourist areas. This implies that the national or regional policies often do
not dovetail with objectives in individual communities, especially if the latter
are still at an early stage of their individual resort cycle.
The Exploration/Involvement Stage
At this stage, tourism is still underdeveloped (Table 4.1). The Akamas peninsula
in north-western Cyprus was in this stage at the beginning of the decade,
though it has since witnessed significant growth in the communities located on
its fringes. Places which are a better ‘fit’ for this stage include remote communities
on some of the more peripheral islands of the northern Aegean (e.g. parts
of Lesvos, Limnos and Samos). Certain isolated villages in southern Crete also
fit this description (Dagonaki and Kotios, 1998). Various players, among them
the local authority and a small number of private investors, gradually realize
(partly based on their experiences from other destinations) that tourism can
fuel rapid economic growth. Thus, there is pressure by some stakeholders to
create an atmosphere conducive to investment for tourism-related activities.
The local government is likely to finance or subsidize infrastructural projects
(e.g. road, irrigation schemes and airports) and develop incentive packages for
attracting private-sector ventures (Andriotis, 2006). Moreover, authorities set
up a promotional agency to market the locality. Local land-use and building
codes (if they exist) are weak and environmental regulations absent, whereas
little attention is paid to national or regional policies. Local concern about the
socio-cultural impacts of tourism is also minimal.
Likewise, the local inhabitants are excited about the prospects of tourism
development and demonstrate little opposition to the sector since they commonly
associate it to job generation, wealth creation and ‘progress’ or ‘modernization’.
These local players are not too concerned about environmental
issues at this stage. They may, in fact, be outright hostile towards any attempts