Mountainous Tourism Development in Crete: Local Perspective
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Mountainous tourism is perceived as an effective catalyst of socio-economic development and is relied upon as a means of addressing the challenges that peripheral rural communities in Crete are facing, primarily those related to the decline of traditional industries. Studies elsewhere show that it has the potential to assist local communities, such as the mountainous village of Anogia, which is the area of research in this paper. This study examines residents’ perceptions regarding the impacts of tourism development. The limited knowledge in relation to the residents’ perspective of tourism development in mountainous areas was the driving force for undertaking this study. A qualitative method was employed for the purpose of this study. A purposive sample of 50 residents was interviewed using semi-structured and conversational interviews. The analysis of the collected data shows that mountain tourism can produce significant negative impacts as well as the expected positive outcomes. A significant finding of this study was that residents in Anogia support tourism development, but it is their view that such tourism should be responsible to, and respectful of their local traditions and customs.
Keywords: Mountainous tourism development, village tourism, local residents, impacts, responsible tourism, Crete
Article Details
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.