Sport Tourism and Local Sustainable Development in Small Islands: The Case of Kalymnos as a Sustainable Destination

Kalymnos Island is located in the Dodecanese island complex in the South Eastern Aegean Sea. It is world-wide known for its sponge fishing. In recent years, Kalymnos has been becoming globally famous for its climbing fields. Nevertheless, Kalymnos is characterized by mediocre tourist traffic and lack of tourist infrastructure. Sport tourism can be a driving force for the economic sustainable development of the island of Kalymnos. Kalymnos is characterized by approximately 52 caves and more than 2500 climbing routes for every climbing level. This percentage of the discovered geology treasure environment of Kalymnos is about 10% (Chatziionannou et al., Variscan tectonics in Dodecanese, Kalymnos Island, Greece. In: Proceedings of the EGU general assembly conference abstracts, Vienna, Austria, 12–17 April 2015, 2015). This gives the opportunity for climbers and geologists to discover more of the geological beauty of Kalymnos’ environment. In addition, diving is in the tradition of every resident of Kalymnos from century to century. The aim of this chapter is to discover some of the general, geological, geographical, and natural characteristics of Kalymnos, as well as to investigate how climbing and diving sport tourism can help the island of Kalymnos to be sustainable develop. A new era is created for the island of Kalymnos: to be globally famous as one of the best touristic destinations for climbing and diving experiences.