Sustainable Tourism Development in Less Touristy Destinations; The Case of Epirus, Greece

While Greece is a destination that everyone knows and maybe has visited at least once in their life, not all Greek destinations are touristy just like Santorini or Crete are. For this reason, in the last few years, there has been an attempt to develop strategies for sustainable tourism in less-known destinations in Greece. In order to achieve sustainable tourism development, Governments and Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) must take into account several parameters. For example, not all destinations provide the same natural landscapes or similar cultural heritage. That means that different strategies must be applied so as to achieve the goal of sustainable tourism development. First of all, in this essay, development strategies for sustainable tourism are going to be discussed. It is very significant to point out good practices which can lead to tourism sustainability. In this way, both touristy and less touristy destinations can increase their sustainability. Much more, the case of Epirus in Greece is a good example of how we can apply development strategies for sustainable tourism. For example, the Cultural Route of the Ancient Theaters of Epirus is a great paradigm of how a destination can improve its tourism sustainability by using its cultural resources. In this way, it can attract more tourists all year round. To conclude, by developing good strategies for sustainable tourism, countries achieve to have tourism not just for a few months of the year but almost all year round. Finally, there are many destinations that need to develop tourism so as to develop their economy, create new jobs and thus reduce unemployment.