Cultural Tourism Policy in Greece: A Focus on Crete
The study attempts to explore the possible links between sustainable heritage tourism development, and the concepts of co-operation and accountability in policy-making. The study elaborates on the theoretical concept of governance and its empirical application on cultural heritage attractions. The paper considers the enhanced need for co-operation and collaboration among stakeholders. In addition, the paper looks at the concept of accountability and how it can ensure greater efficiency in the operations of cultural heritage institutions. The analysis focuses on the principles of participatory decision-making and accountability as two forms of governance regarding the form of policy making in heritage tourism attractions in Greece.
The paper will argue that there is pressing need for the management teams of heritage attractions to come together in forming common marketing and advertisement strategies in order to overcome the centralised nature of tourism policy-making. In that way, they will gain from increased synergies and economies of scale. If these attempts are fruitful there will be more representative (devolution of decision-making) and more responsible (self - reliance) administration of the two sites. The study identifies demand management problems, and the provision of complementary facilities as the main issues affecting the quality of Cretan heritage tourist attractions. The analysis of the results indicates that by improving collaboration between heritage managers and nurturing the notion of accountability, cultural heritage managers would be able to enhance the value of heritage attractions to the society in general.
Keywords: Cultural sustainability, Crete, Governance styles, Tourism policy
Dr Alexandros Apostolakis
Research Associate, Department of Economics, |
Shabbar Jaffrry
Senior Lecturer / Director of post-Graduate programs in Economics, Deapartment of Economics, |
Ref: S06P0321