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

21as a model for Greece is perhaps the system of Costa Rica (CST). Even though onecould easily distinguish that tourism in Costa Rica is largely based on the attraction ofwild nature, while in Greece it is almost entirely connected to the “sea, sand and sun”model, the Costa Rican programme could still offer valuable lessons and usefulinsights for building a national-wide certification programme in Greece. The mostimportant reasons for selecting CST as a model of tourism certification are thefollowing:1. Greece, like Costa Rica, is a popular destination for international travelers,which makes both countries’ economies largely dependent on tourism.Consequently, tourism sustainability is extremely crucial for theconservation of the rich natural and cultural environment of both CostaRica and Greece, which will allow them to remain competitive on theglobal tourism arena in the long term. Developing a certificationprogramme with focus on tourism sustainability is, hence, a high priorityfor Greece.2. Tourism in both Costa Rica and Greece is primarily based on small andmedium-sized enterprises, as opposed to large hotel chains that dominatethe tourism industry of other destinations. Hence, a certification systemsimilar to the Costa Rican CST is less expensive than the entirely EMS 12 -based certification programmes, and therefore is much more affordable forsmall and medium businesses, that account for the vast majority of thetourism industry in Greece.3. To date, Greece has practically not developed any real ecotourism and,unless there is a serious and concerted effort from all stakeholders,ecotourism development might still not come to realization for a longperiod of time in the future. This implies that the ultimate priority forGreece at the moment is developing a certification system that focuses ontourism sustainability rather than on ecotourism. The latter is morespecialized and should become a concern only after general tourismsustainability has been attained in the country.4. It would be unrealistic to imagine that a country like Greece, which hasbeen supporting conventional tourism patterns for decades, could suddenlymake a leap to ecotourism certification. It is not surprising that in countrieswith a long tradition in ecotourism (e.g. Australia) such certificationschemes are highly regarded. Nevertheless, Greece still has a long way togo in terms of tourism sustainability and, for this to happen, one step at atime should be taken. In other words, what is urgent at the moment isestablishing and implementing more sustainable patterns of tourismdevelopment. In this regard, developing a certification scheme for tourismsustainability similar to the Costa Rican CST would be very helpful.5. The development of a national certification scheme in Greece similar tothe CST would be advantageous because it could be effectively combinedwith a State-run subsidizing programme, in the same way that this operates12 Environmental Management System