Thesis title: “The development of community-based ecotourism - lumes

1ABSTRACTTourism certification has attracted a great deal of attention during the past few yearsboth within the academic community and the tourism industry. Although it is mostlyused as a voluntary mechanism, it is regarded as one of the most promising of its kind.Notwithstanding, the potential benefits of certification for achieving sustainability intourism should not be overestimated. Moreover, community-based ecotourism is oftenpraised for the significant benefits it delivers to local people and is considered as aform of small-scale development which complies with the fundamental principles ofsustainability. This, however, does not imply that careful and integrated planning andmanagement are not necessary for the success of any ecotourism project. This paperfocuses on the issues of tourism certification and community-based ecotourism andexamines whether and under what conditions these tools can help promote sustainabletourism development in Greece.Keywords: community-based ecotourism, sustainable tourism, tourism certification,tourism ecolabels, Greece