Thesis title: âThe development of community-based ecotourism - lumes

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3TABLE OF CONTENTS1. INTRODUCTION AND RESEARCH METHODS USED..................................42. BACKGROUND INFORMATION ABOUT TOURISM IN GREECE -STRATEGIC WEAKNESSES OF THE GREEK TOURISM AND LIMITINGFACTORS FOR ACHIEVING SUSTAINABILITY ...............................................53. DEFINITION AND DISCUSSION OF BASIC CONCEPTS..............................84. OVERVIEW AND ASSESSMENT OF THREE REPRESENTATIVECERTIFICATION SCHEMES FOR TOURISM - WHICH COULD SERVE ASA MODEL FOR GREECE? .....................................................................................155. MAJOR ISSUES RELATED TO COMMUNITY-BASED ECOTOURISM .226. THE CASE STUDY OF ZAGORI .......................................................................256.1. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND INFORMATION ABOUTZAGORI ..................................................................................................................266.2. A GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THE WWF PLAN FOR ECOTOURISMDEVELOPMENT IN ZAGORI...............................................................................286.3. ASSESSMENT OF THE WWF PLAN AND SUGGESTIONS FORFURTHER IMPROVEMENT.................................................................................316.4. CONCLUSIONS AND PROJECTIONS FOR THE FUTURE OF ZAGORI ASA TOURISM DESTINATION................................................................................347. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION ............................................358. LIST OF REFERENCES......................................................................................389. APPENDIXES........................................................................................................43I. PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS THROUGH INTERVIEWS:..........................................43IIA. MAP OF EPIRUS............................................ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED.IIB. MAP OF ZAGORI ................................................................................................45III. CHECKLIST FOR ECOTOURISM PROJECTS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES...... ERROR!BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED.
41. INTRODUCTION AND RESEARCH METHODS USEDDuring the past few decades, tourism has become one of the world’s mostprofitable industries but, in the same time, one of the most harmful human activities interms of environmental degradation. However, tourism itself depends largely on theexistence of unspoilt environment, which stresses the growing need for tourism tofind more sustainable paths of development in all aspects (environmental, economicand social). This is of even greater significance when it concerns ecologically andculturally sensitive areas, where conventional (mass) tourism 1 has a heavy impact.The growing concern for the adverse environmental effects of mass tourism, coupledwith the emergence of alternative forms of tourism such as ecotourism, has initiatedan immense debate on whether the latter could, indeed, lead to greater sustainabilityin the long term. As a matter of fact, ecotourism is an alternative form of tourism thathas been constantly gaining ground at a global scale during the past few years. Itsfundamental principles refer to minimizing negative impacts on the environment,respecting the local cultures and actively contributing to the economic and socialwell-being of host communities, as well as conserving the natural environment.Certification within the tourism field, whether referring to conventional tourism,sustainable tourism or ecotourism, is another issue that has attracted a great deal ofattention both among tourism experts and the public during the last years. There is,however, some skepticism concerning the tangible benefits that certification canprovide in the direction of sustainable tourism development. In fact, even if tourismdevelopment within destinations becomes sustainable, the problem of unsustainabletransport and traveling to and from these destinations remains unresolved. Althoughthis is a very critical matter in itself, it is outside the scope of this work. The mainfocus of this paper is the achievement of sustainable tourism development at the localand regional scale and, therefore, the analysis of tourism sustainability issues andconcerns on the global level will be left out.After providing an overview of the current state and particular features of thetourism industry in Greece, two main research objectives can be identified within thescope of this thesis. The first is to analyse a number of representative and wellrecognizedtourism certification schemes used at the global scale, as well as to comeup with the one that would be most appropriate to take as a model for Greece, afterconsidering the special characteristics of the country’s tourism sector. The secondobjective of this paper is to investigate the concept of community-based ecotourismand its potential to become a driver of tourism sustainability in Greece, which, untiltoday, is a country largely dominated by mass tourism. An example of a rural area inthe north-western part of the country (Zagori) will be taken for this purpose. In brief,this paper seeks to investigate whether and how developing community-basedecotourism and certification systems for tourism can be beneficial from theenvironmental, economic and social point of view.Different qualitative methods have been used in order to collect the data thatwill be presented in this paper. In particular, two types of primary research werecarried out. The first one comprised six semi-structured interviews with equal numberof agencies, companies, organisations and institutions located in Athens and relevant1The term “mass tourism” denotes “the services – basically accommodation, catering andentertainment – that are low cost and low added value, and that involve poorly educated employees andthat freely consume natural resources” (Spilanis & Vayanni, 2004, p.282).
Page 1 and 2: Tourism Certification and Community
Page 3: 2ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSI would like to ta
Page 7 and 8: 6operate for six months every year
Page 9 and 10: 8and tackled immediately, the futur
Page 11 and 12: 10Many scholars have also attempted
Page 13 and 14: In addition, sustainable tourism co
Page 15 and 16: 14creating a stronger brand that is
Page 17 and 18: 16In an attempt to acquire a deeper
Page 19 and 20: 18such as land use and biodiversity
Page 21 and 22: 20The CST is mainly a performance-b
Page 23 and 24: 22in Costa Rica. As tourism experts
Page 25 and 26: 24Tourist SpendingDirectImpactsTour
Page 27 and 28: 26economic well-being constitutes a
Page 29 and 30: 28policies and oversee the general
Page 31 and 32: scientific research regarding topic
Page 33 and 34: 32economic benefits will be generat
Page 35 and 36: 34This task is far from simple; it
Page 37 and 38: 36mechanisms such as tourism certif
Page 39 and 40: 388. LIST OF REFERENCESBendell, J.
Page 41 and 42: Issaverdis, J. P. (2001). The Pursu
Page 43 and 44: 42and Sustainability - Linking Cult
Page 45 and 46: 44IIA. MAP OF EPIRUS(Source: www.al
Page 47 and 48: 46III. CHECKLIST FOR ECOTOURISM PRO
Page 49: 48Part III. Economicopportunities f

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Thesis title: âThe development of community-based ecotourism - lumes