Is Agrotourism 'Agro' or 'Tourism'? Evidence from Agrotourist Holdings in Lesvos, Greece
Gousiou Aikaterini

GOUSIOU AIKATERINI* - SPILANIS IOANNIS** - KZIOS THANASIS***
*University of the Aegean
**University of the Aegean
***University of the Aegean

ABSTRACT
This study examines the impact of agrotourism on farm characteristics (income, farming practices, investment) and rural population characteristics (age, sex, permanent residence). Results show that even if the agrotourism program appears successful as far as income improvement and willingness to stay in agriculture is involved, most of the agrotourist holdings in Lesvos operate in the margin of mass tourism with the same 'customers' and the same product, without connections with agricultural production, local products promotion, or environmental and cultural landscape conservation. Agrotourism in Lesvos is tourism operated by farmers, but it is not agro-tourism as the later is defined.

Keywords: agrotourism, rural development, Greece.


Tourism, Transport Geography and Industrial Economics: A Synthesis in the Context of Mediterranean Islands

ANDREAS PAPATHEODOROU
University of Surrey

ABSTRACT
Connectivity is a crucial issue for tourism development, especially in Mediterranean island destinations, whose accessibility from the mainland tourist origins depends entirely on sea and air passenger transport services. These operations are subject to significant market oligopolisation. Therefore, the study of the prevailing industrial configuration is essential. In this context, the paper argues that irrespectively of the initial conditions of location, market power in transport may affect significantly the territorial pattern of tourism flows in Mediterranean island destinations. More specifically, the spatial implications of the previous air and sea passenger transport regulatory regime in the European Union are compared with those of the present liberal framework to conclude that neither of these systems provides the ideal connectivity conditions in the Mediterranean as issues of core and peripherality are insufficiently addressed. From this perspective, the policymakers are recommended to enrich the current deregulatory framework with a set of active tourism strategies based on solid foundations of industrial economics and island transport geography.

Keywords: transport, geography, industrial economics, island tourism, Mediterranean Region

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

PARIS THARTAS* - EVDOKIA MANOLOGLOU** - ANNA MARKOU***
*University of the Aegean
**The National Center for Social Research
***The National Center for Social Research

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.

Keywords: domestic tourism, tourism development, alternative forms of tourism, special forms of tourism, special interest destinations.

Definition and Quantification of the Tourism Product's Quality: Theoretical Analysis and Practical Applications

VASILIS ANGELIS* - MARIA A. SALAMOURA**
*University of the Aegean
**University of the Aegean

ABSTRACT
Business organizations operate within a dynamic and fast changing environment, and in order to survive in it they should develop comparative advantages vis-a-vis their competitors and use them effectively. Traditional comparative advantages like availability of resources, access to large and wealthy markets and technological superiority have recently lost a large part of their effectiveness. Hence, every modern organization should look for a new and effective competitive advantage and there is strong evidence to suggest that this can be nothing else but the quality of its products and services. The concept of a product's quality, and more specifically its definition, the factors affecting it and the ways of measuring them, are the major point of interest in the first part of this paper. The second part focuses on the quality of the tourism product, and the general methodology developed in the first part will be applied to it.

Keywords: quality, price of a product, tourism product.

Sustainable Development and Tourism in Small Islands: Some Lessons from Greece

HARRY COCCOSSIS
University of the Aegean

ABSTRACT
Many islands in the world have become tourist destinations on the basis of their natural and cultural heritage. Islands deserve in many respects a special treatment in view of a sensitive balance between environment, economy and society. The dynamics of development/environment opportunities and constraints in the case of small islands are best exemplified in the case of tourism. The growing demand for tourism opens new opportunities, especially for small islands, providing income and employment. At the same time tourism is causing damage to the island environment, culture, monuments, the local population and even the quality of the visitor's experience threatening the basis of tourist development. This paper provides some reference to the dynamics of tourism and environment in the case of the small Greek islands.

Keywords: island dynamics, sustainable tourism.

The Perspectives of Ecotourism Development in Small Islands of the South Dodecanese
Leonidas Maroudas

LEONIDAS MAROUDAS* - ANNA KYRIAKAI**
University of The Aegean
University of The Aegean

ABSTRACT
The infeasibility of implementing an organized mass tourism model in the small islands of the South Dodecanese, due to their geomorphology and size, the local production structures and their geographical position may on the one hand minimize the danger of facing the adverse environmental, social and cultural consequences of the tourism industry, at least for the time being, but on the other calls for an immediate choice of more environmentally and culturally friendly small- scale tourist activities, such as ecotourism, that can contribute to relaxing isolation and stopping or reversing demographic contraction. Thus, the functional linking and interwoving of the local development axes with activities directly related with ecotourism, aiming at the optimization of a mixture of economic and non-economic objectives, such as the increase of local employment, the provision of social services and environmental protection, may prove very effective in upgrading standards of living and thus retaining the most dynamic sections of the population.

Keywords: sustainable tourism development, ecotourism, community participation.