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Dissertation Submitted September 2007 in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of M. Sc. in Tourism Management and Marketing.
Katsouli Pinelopi
I hereby declare that this dissertation is all my own work, except as indicated in the text:
Acknowledgments
I would like to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation towards my supervisor Adam Blake for his assistance and understanding. I sincerely thank my family, Katerina, Christos and Geogia for their supportiveness and special care all those years. Invaluable was the contribution of my beloved friends, Alexandros, Athina and Dimitrios who spent lots of their free time, over the summer. Finally, I would like also to thank all those who participated in my research and foremost, I owe a special thank to Ioannis Perakis who supplied me with a great variety of secondary data, retrieved from his personal database.
Abstract
Abstract
The present paper has explored the policy planning and development in emerging tourism settings in Sitia. Comprehensively, this study, in the name of sustainable development, focused on the extent of collaborative and community-based planning. For that reason exploratory research has been used; the context and the structure of the previous chapter aimed to uncover the socially constructed reality of Sitias stakeholders, within the dynamic environment, and respond to why and how questions. Therein significant was the contribution of eight different interviewees, closely related with the field, as well as the obtained secondary data that provided valuable indeed background information (Bryman & Bell, 2003).Briefly, a limited scope of collaboration has been implied within the Sitias district, as the range of participants is not representative of all the affected bodies by tourism development, instead it would be better to talk of a private and public sector cooperation (Timothy, 1998). Thereby, the intensity of collaboration is also limited; during the 15 years of negotiation about the Cavo Sidero investment limited working groups, conferences and surveys took place that indicate low direct interaction among stakeholders and minimal information dissemination (Bramwell and Sharman, 1999). So, whilst accepting the spatial proximity of local authorities to the domain and to the community the need to empower them came at the forefront. Further, from a long term perspective local authorities enriched with special skilled human resources and in concert with the private sector should invest on building community capacity through education and raise of self awareness, in order locals to be capable of coping with complex and demanding issues and then undertaking projects with independence and skills (Jamal and Lagiewski, 2006, p. 2
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Glossary of terms
Glossary of terms
G. N. T. O.: GDP: G. G. 4420/2006: M. P. E.: OAS: O.A.E.D.: O. D. E. P: S. H. O. O. A. P.: municipality of Sitia. /: YPEHODE:
Greek national tourism organisation: Gross domestic Profit Official Government Gazette Study of Environmental Impacts Development Organisation of Sitia Greek Manpower Employment Organisation Organisation Management of Ecclesiastical Fortune
General spatial plan around the rural and urban areas of the
Technical Chamber of Eastern Crete Ministry of Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works
Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction
Introduction- Choice of topic. Collaboration and Community- Based Planning approach. Research Question and Objectives.
1 2 3
2
2.0
2.1 Tourism policy. 2.2 2.3 2.4 The role of government (state). Tourism Planning. Community based and Collaboration planning concepts.
2.4.1 Collaboration planning. 2.4.2 Community based planning. 2.5 Actors, Power and, Policy Networks.
Chapter 3 Methodology
3.1
Introduction.
37 38 40 42 43 45
3.3.1 Qualitative research (justification of choice). 3.4 In- depth and Semi-structured interviews (justification of choice)
Contents
46 48 49 50
4
4.1 4.2 4.3 4.3
4.3.1 The Greek Church 4.3.2 State 4.3.3 Community 4.3.4 Ecologists
5 6
75
Appendix A Who did attend in the daily Conference in Sitia? Appendix B Personal Interviews-Questions English Version Greek Version Appendix C Written interview Appendix D Proposed terms from the representative of the Ecological group Appendix E The Inter-scientific Group that conducted the M.P.E. 104 103 101 95 98 93
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Contents
List of figures
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Figure 2.1 Development of tourism policy objectives Figure 2.2 Schematic structure of the state with reference to tourism Figure 2.3 An evolutionary model of tourism partnerships. Figure 2.4 The four types of cooperation Figure 2.5 A Normative Model of Participatory Tourism Planning Figure 2.6 Normative typologies of community participation Figure 2.7 Tourism Stakeholder Map Figure 2.8 Stakeholder mapping: The power/interest matrix
6 9 22 23 25 31 35 36
Figure 4.1 Map of Sitias District and Location of Cavo Sidero Investment Figure 4.2 A close up to the Peninsula of Cavo Sidero.
62 62
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Contents
Table 1
14
27
39
Table 3.2 Uses of different types of interview in each of the main research categories 44
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Chapter1: Introduction
Chapter 1
This particular thesis will be occupied with issues surrounded the case study of Sitia that is located in the North- East coast of Crete. The main focus will be Sitia, since tourism has a far more visible effect in rural areas, than in urban areas and consequently a greater effect on rural residents (Tosun, 2006, p.503). At present time, Sitia experiences emergent tourism settings that involve the development of an integrated resort Cavo Sidero, accompanied with the development of regional infrastructure, such as the internationalization of the local airport and the further expansion of the local portmarina. It seems likely that all those actions aimed to assist the tourism product diversification and increase the destinations competitiveness. However, severe frictions and objections have been raised towards the influx of external private capital and developers, as encouraged by the already involved government in the tourism development (Jamal and Getz, 1995). So, this particular case has attracted the writers interest, because of the unreasonable, almost a decade, postponement of those developmental initiatives that endangers, at the end of the day, the great potentials for this locality. In brief, this situation holds at the pre-construction phase the mega-project and could be translated as a lack of collaboration and coordination among the enriched tourism domain, where diverse actors with conflicting values and goals exist (Jamal and Getz, 1995).
So far, the island in total has been characterised by regional imbalances in terms of development, where some parts have reached the stagnation level and others have just reached the developmental phase (Andriotis, 2003). Despite its polymorphic status, the planning process of its tourism development is rather centralized, and controlled mainly by the Greek Ministry of Tourism (ibid). That is often perceived from Cretans as an external intervention, which ignores local reality and their real needs. Noteworthy, this Page 1
Chapter1: Introduction
situation contradicts with the recent decentralization tendency of decision making process in many countries, where local governments are getting more power to direct development and manage local tourism (Timothy, 1999).
1.1
Broadly speaking, tourism development goes together with some conflicting interest groups such as conservationists versus the developers (Markwick, 2000). The former prioritize conservation issues of development and the latter economic ones. Accordingly, the biggest challenge for any proposed tourism development plan would be to involve all the affected parties within this process (Aas et al., 2005) that seeks to optimize the potential contribution of tourism to human welfare and environmental quality (Timothy, 1999, p. 371). Under this respect, cooperation and collaboration are major issues in tourism planning that invoke direct dialogue among participating stakeholders, which may diminish all the apparent power imbalances (Reed, 1997). Therein, power, as a concept, has to do not only with social actions and interrelationships of actors, but also with negotiations of the most favourable terms of strategies (Verbole, 2000). Therefore, collaborative planning in tourism context is a process of joint decision making, among autonomous key stakeholders, to resolve planning problems and or to manage issues related to the planning and development (De Araujo & Bramwell, 1999, p. 369). However, for the implementation of collaborative planning approach is imperative to identify and legitimize all the potential stakeholders (Roberts and Simpson, 1999), regardless the notion of an endless list of potential stakeholders (Robson and Robson, 1996). Beyond this identification, it is also vital to understand and explore stakeholders interests, values and existed inter-relational networks that should be all encompassed in a congruent manner within strategic frameworks (ibid).
Meanwhile, as the tourism system is highly fragmented no single organisation or individual can exert direct control over the destinations development process (Reed,
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Chapter1: Introduction
1997). Accordingly, the contribution of the Greek Ministry of Tourism in Sitia remains still debatable. Therefore, the author suggests the establishment of a democratic and independent, from national and local elites, convener such as a DMO that could incorporate all the involved multi-stakeholders, with the aim to secure balanced power differentials, joint decision making and foremost a cohesive congruent planning policy. In a manner of speaking, if tourism is to become successful and self perpetuating industry many have advocated, it needs to be planned and managed as a renewable resource industry based on local capacities and community decision making (Murphy, 1985, as cited by Hall, 2000, p. 33). Consequently, this requires the adoption of community based planning, which proclaims collaborative and coordinated efforts, democratization of governing processes and foremost communitys empowerment (Ritchie, 1999; Marzano and Scott, 2006). In turn, all those together could preserve the economic, environmental and social sustainability of a destination.
ii. Explore how the Greek government participates in Sitias tourism development
and evaluate its collaborative stance.
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Chapter1: Introduction
iv. Explore why the tourism development and planning process have not been
democratized in this emergent tourism settings and how it could be done.
Hence, this paper, under the umbrella of tourism policy and development planning, seeks to uncover stakeholders beliefs, attitudes and behaviours always though in correlation with their legitimate power, their personal interests and lastly competitors actions. So, it would be interesting to explore the way that people respond to the tourism phenomenon, especially when considering the premature status of a destination, like Sitia, in terms of tourism.
The remainder of this dissertation will be comprised by other 4 chapters. Chapter 2 known as literature review helps to do some preliminary thinking [] before [the writer] begins the search itself (Hart, 2001, as cited by Silverman, 2005, p.295). Therefore other peoples writing will be reviewed about government roles, policy and planning concepts, collaboration and community based planning approaches and lastly the issues of actors, power and policy networks will not be ignored. After this directive chapter, the methodology of research follows. Chapter 3 will illustrate the research process, the use of qualitative research stream and data collection methods will be justified, the data collection process will be described and finally some further issues about data analysis will be considered, meaning the limitations and ethics. Next, Chapter 4 will present the findings of this case study, where the social constructed reality (Denzin and Lincoln, 2003) ought to be compared and applied with issues originated from Chapter 2. Herein, valuable is the contribution of Greek bibliography as secondary data, due to the lack of official reports and surveys. Lastly, Chapter 5 will draw the conclusions of this study and will make suggestions for further research in the near future.
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Chapter 2
Nowadays and in the near future, tourism industry will experience major changes, in the operational level and in its structure, as an aftermath of the new tourism revolution (Poon, 1994, p. 91) and the emerging new consumer tastes. The success though of tourism rests, both at micro and macro levels, on the way organisations and destinations are planned, managed, and marketed (Costa and Buhalis, 2006). A prerequisite will be the formulation of an adequate public tourism policy; that ought to regulate the tourism industry as a whole and its related activities (ibid). In a manner of speaking about the held changes within the tourism industry and before reviewing the tourism planning and policy concepts as such, Ritchie quoted two major trends, as outlined by the Tourism Policy Forum in the George Washington University (GWU), which were believed to shape the future of tourism policy in the 1990s:
(1) The physical environment is taking centre stage in tourism development and management; furthermore, there is recognition that there are finite limitations to tourism development in terms of both physical and social carrying capacity of destinations and;
(2) that resident responsive tourism is the watchword for tomorrow; community demands for active participation in the setting of the tourism agenda and its priorities for tourism development and management cannot be ignored( Hawkins et al., 1991, as cited by Ritchie, 1999, p. 206).
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Figure 2.1 Development of tourism policy objectives (Source Fayos-Sola, 1996, p.409).
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So, what is really tourism policy? Tourism policy, as with other public policies, is a political activity that reflects societys values and ideologies, economic conditions distribution of power institutions, and decision making processes (Hall and Jenkins, 1995). Further, Amoah and Baum opine that policy is a process as well as a product; [] it is used to refer to a process of decision making and also to the product of that process (1997, p. 7). This quotation reassures indirectly Pressman and Wildavskys (1973) causality of policies, for instance, towards a destination; wherein policies, as authoritative actions, point to a chain of causation from x conditions to y future consequences (Denzin and Lincoln, 2003). Tourism policy, whilst being conceived as a development strategy and despite this causality over the local resources, ought to serve the public interest through managing and planning those resources (Andriotis, 2006). Hence, tourism policy performs, as a sum of regulated guidelines, which determines specific objectives and actions that aimed to meet the needs, for instance, of an emerging tourism destination setting (Amoah and Baum, 1997; Reed, 1999). Last but not least, tourism public policy is whatever governments choose to do or not to do with respect to tourism (Jenkins, 1993, as cited by Hall, 2000, p.8). In every respect, public policy is the focal point of government activity that is often vulnerable and adaptive to the economic social and cultural conditions of a civil society (Hall, 2000).Occasionally though, severe criticism has been raised about governments inefficiencies, actions and inactions with respect to tourism and the environment (ibid).
A hallmark of those inefficiencies can be traced on governments lack of control of tourism development (Scheyvens, 2002) and substantially on their varying degrees of involvement in tourism policy, from a reactive to a more passive role (Hall, 2000). Noteworthy, policymaking is increasingly characterised by dynamic multi-actor interactions, complex power differentials and uneven resource and information exchange between actors and agencies (Dredge, 2006, p. 562). Herein, it should be added Zhangs et al position (1999) about policy making derived from their study about the Chinese tourism policies; they state that policy making is a policy arena where institutional arrangements, values and power arrangements [occur among different] interest groups,
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decisions are made (Hall, 2000, p.8) and implemented should not be overridden from this debate about inefficiencies, where all public, private and non profit sectors would be involved and legally liable if needed. Respectively, Zhang et al. attached in their study the tourism policy process as presented by Hall in 1994:
(1) policy demands from both inside and outside the political system; (2) policy decisions by the political authority, which are authoritative rather than routine; (3) policy outputs; and (4) intended or unintended policy impacts(1999, p. 473).
Throughout this process, they suggest that the governments roles could be identified-clarified, even if they reach the mismanagement levels. So what is the governments role in tourism policy development? The next section will seek to shed some light on this question, even if tourism industry is complex by definition, where in some cases the norms of chaos dominate, especially when considering the transition from the Fordist into the more flexible, turbulent and less predictable era (Tyler and Dinan, 2001).
Although tourism is an activity sustained mainly by private initiatives, simultaneously various other groups have played at the national level a significant role in the development of tourism, either directly or indirectly (Gunn and Var, 2002); those groups might be the law enforcement executive branch, legislative branch, judiciary and regulatory, public service quasi-public agencies, statutory authorities and government enterprises (ibid, p.111). Oversimplified, those set of officials, political institutions,
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Figure 2.2: Schematic structure of the state with reference to tourism (Source: Hall and Jenkins, 1995, p.20).
Consequently, the reasons that the states have been involved in the tourism development are twofold. Principally, they need to investigate the cause and effect relationship between the actual legislations and policies (e.g. taxation) upon tourism
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Nevertheless, those given reasons about government-state intervention should not be perceived as a panacea, since the degree of intervention and the reasons that motivate them to do so, vary considerably from country to country; for instance tourism in mature destinations has less need of public involvement than elsewhere (Jeffries, 2001, p. 112). Additionally the level of government intervention might be also affected by the political structures; in capitalistic countries there was little intervention by government in policy making, where laissez faire tourism development, by the private sector, has dominated (Gunn and Var, 2002, p. 109). Overall, the extent of the states role in tourism varies according to the conditions and circumstances peculiar to each country i.e. political, economic, constitutional system, socio-economic development degree of tourism development (IUOTO, 1974, as cited by Jamal, 2007, p.22).
Recently, though regardless of the degree of tourism development and the political structures, the society requests via lobbying efforts some form of governmental intervention and monitoring, due to the apparent increased environmental pressures (Akama, 2002; Gunn and Var, 2002), since the states role [] [ought to be] indispensable for successful [sustainable] tourism development (Bramwell, 1999, p.72). For that reason, Hall has introduced a classification of governments roles in tourism, where five of them were obtained from the International Union of Travel Organisation (1974), the coordination, planning, legislation and regulation, entrepreneur, stimulation and then other two extra roles added, the social tourism role and the broader role of interest protection(Hall, 2000). In accordance to these distinctive roles, the width of
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Meanwhile, the private sector, the catalyst for tourism development (FayosSola, 1996, p.409), in the form of businesses and non profit organisations, should not be excluded from the determination of policy settings; indeed they could contribute with their actions and inactions to the fulfillment of reciprocal tourism goals and objectives (Gunn and Var, 2002). Since, no single organisation or individual can exert direct control over the destinations development process, [even at the government level](Jamal and Getz, 1995, p. 193). As a proof of that. Dredge notes recently, in her study about policy networks the shift from government to governance (Rhodes, 1997, as cited by Dredge, 2006, p. 270), where the governments offset their own responsibilities and the increasingly blurred roles of public and private sectors, in the policymaking (ibid) comes into the forefront. Thus, state and non- state actors compose networks and coalitions; where those varied parties are bound together through either shared beliefs or resource dependencies [] and [often compete] to influence the policy processes and outcomes (Costa and Buhalis, 2006, p. 158). However, Hall and Jenkins stressed in 1995 the danger of inevitable clientelistic relationships between the empowered private sector and governments in the name of development, as the former expects to become the main policy shaper, in return to the risks they took, especially in developing countries. Therefore it is imperative for governments to play foremost a
regulatory role rather than allowing elites or international interests to usurp or bypass state control (Scheyvens, 2002, p.174).
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with
social, economic,
political, anthropological, psychological and technological [implications; as a result] the definition and scope of planning is ambiguous (Tosun and Jenkins, 1998, p. 101). Initially, it is commonly accepted that places adopting unplanned tourism development face environmental and social problems, low destination competitiveness and high conflict resolution costs (Yuksel and Bramwell, 1999). In contradiction, tourism planning is widely known as a process that aims to maximise the positive contribution of tourism to a destination and possibly to mitigate the subsequent problems arisen from this given economic activity (Timothy, 1999). To do so, a precondition would be the adoption of an ongoing monitoring system that allows periodic or permanent revision of policies and development plans (Lawson and Baud-Bovy, 1977, as cited by Pearce 2000, p. 191), after considering and evaluating a priori, the macro forces and the given set of goals. So far, the most widely accepted goals of tourism planning have been the enhanced visitor satisfaction, better business, sustainable resource use and community integration (Gunn and Var, 2002, p.22). Hence, planning appears as a critical element for the long term viability of tourist destinations and determines who wins and who loses from the tourism development process (Hall, 2000, p.15).
Tourism planning is maturing as a discipline and its approaches have been evolved from an uncomplicated view of tourism into a more sophisticated, decentralized, and integrated approach (Timothy, 1998). That means planning paradigms have eschewed from the narrow concerns of physical planning and promotion into a more balanced, where priority has been placed on the environment and the communitys [participation] (Timothy, 1999, p.372). Indeed, new paradigms emphasise on the coordination of public and private sector organisations and bring public participation right into the core of the decision making process(Costa and Buhalis, 2006), since tourism impacts are most apparent at the level of destination community(Timothy, 1999, p. 372). While reviewing the literature, such planning approaches have been thoroughly analysed by Getz (1987) and later on by Tosun and Jenkins (1998). Those
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differs from the previous one, on the basis that it has been evolved continuously and over time (ibid, p.102). Additionally, it has been attached here a table that illustrates the evolution of tourism planning and policies in Spain in real terms, as given by Baidal (2004); where in the late 1950s practices, that respond to the boosterism approach, have been identified and later on from the 1994s and onwards a mixture of sustainable and physical planning have been adopted, without overriding the empowered local community.
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Integration of tourism into State indicative planning. Lack of regional- and local-scale planning. The growth of supply is favored despite serious infrastructure deficits and high environmental costs. Land use and Town planning is subordinated to tourism growth.
An unsuccessful attempt is made to link land use and tourism planning. Non-compulsory tourism planning. Plans contained recommendations not implemented. Provincial-scale plans are prepared that can be
Central Administration-promoted plans are replaced with specific studies (statistics, marketing, etc.). White Books are developed in Catalonia and the Balearics that help design the first regional tourist policy. Urban growth under local control thanks to municipal autonomy laws
Reactive plans in which the loss of competitiveness drives the strategic planning approach. The Mediterranean regions with a greater specialization in tourism develop strategic plans with a sectorial approach. The legal basis to link tourism and territorial planning in the regional scale is created but not implemented. Start of planning within the European regional policy (19891993 EC Support Framework).
Regional and sub-regional planning instruments are regulated in tourism laws, but their elaboration takes considerably long. Tourism plans are differently linked to land use and town planning depending on the
Autonomous Communities, but few planning initiatives have been developed. Rise in value of the local scale with inter-administrative Dynamization cooperation On the (Excellence theoretical and level,
Plans).
reinterpretation of the physical approach with the incorporation of sustainable development principles.
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At this stage, only Tosun and Jenkins propositions will be reviewed, due to the world limit constraints; bear in mind though that along with this brief analysis, there will be, in congruence, some reference to Getzs proposed planning approaches. To start with, the common place, for both unplanned tourism development era and boosterism, is that every tourism action clearly lacks of planning (Baidal, 2004; Hall, 2000; Tosun and Jenkins, 1998). Here, mass tourism has been deemed as a mean for destinations economic prosperity, without assessing critically its consequences (Baidal, 2004). There is also no doubt that community has been excluded from any form of tourism planning and decision making (Hall, 2000).
Following, the beginning of partly supply oriented and the entirely supply oriented tourism planning signify a period of intensive development of amenities, attractions, sources of accessibility that aimed to satisfy the continually increasing demand, where planning has played just a minor role, without considering the challenges of cultural and environmental degradation (Tosun and Jenkins, 1998). So, during these planning phases the public sector place high priority to the enhancement of economic indicators of a place, region, and nation; the same as in the economic planning approach, but it ignores consistently the social and environmental aspects (Baidal, 2004). Next, market or demand oriented tourism development planning meant to attract and tempt a large number of tourists (ibid) with shifting tastes from mass towards alternative and greener forms of tourism. At this point, planning and marketing methods might be challenged from the so called experience economy (Pine and Gilmore, 1998, p.97). Where, the key is to win the hearts and the minds of [] [travelers within the competitive maze] and [travelers][] will ultimately reward you with their almighty dollars (Hauser, 2005,p. 104).
Finally, Tosun and Jenkins ended up with the contemporary planning approaches, such as sustainable development, system approaches, integrated planning, communitybased tourism, comprehensive planning and continuous and flexible approach; the
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2.4.1
Collaboration planning In the early days of the 21st century, tourism planners, managers and academics
regardless of their tourism objectives (i.e. economic, conservation etc.) and under the complex interdependent settings of tourism industry, recognised the pronounced need and power of collaborative actions (Selin, 1999), since individual actions are not anymore sufficient enough (Getz and Jamal, 1995). At the same time, as the level of competition has intensified in a global scale, significant pressures have been exerted for an increased democratization of governing processes at all levels [], [with] greater involvement of the citizenry, even within the tourism context (Ritchie, 1999, p. 208). These changing circumstances, together with the new emerging tourism needs, ought to surround the tourism planning concept with the sustainable ethos, norms, and principles (Timothy, 1999). However, Ryan had differentiated his position whilst he suggested instead a turn
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From that point of view, and whilst given the diffused and fragmented world order, collaboration, and coordination, due to their dynamic and flexible nature that involves multiple stakeholders(Jamal et al., 2002 ), are perceived as an epitome in the field of tourism planning and management. Both of them have been linked to the idea of sustainable development and in the context of communitybased tourism, to integration, and participation (Aas et al. 2005, p.30). Therefore as context, they have been met in various policy agendas, for instance in the Tomorrows Tourism, the British tourism policy document; [wherein it was addressed the] commitment to encourage tourism management partnerships between local authorities, tourism operators, and local communities (DCMS, 1999, Bramwell and Lane, 2000, p. 2). At this stage, it would be helpful to add the definition of collaboration as introduced initially by Gray in 1985, despite the fact that it was addressed primarily in the field of environmental planning and management, which is the pooling of appreciations and/or tangible resources (information, money, labour etc.) by two or more stakeholders to solve a set of problems which neither can solve individually (Selin and Chavez, 1995, p.190).
Later on, Jamal and Getz expanded this definition and conceptualized it in a comprehensive and truly related manner to the tourism planning path. So collaboration is the process of joint decision making among autonomous key stakeholders of an interorganisational community tourism domain to resolve planning problems of the domain, and or to manage issues related to the planning and development of the domain(1995, p.188). Overall, collaboration implies a joint decision making among interdependent multiple stakeholders that share power, resources and responsibility about purposeful actions and outcomes that affect equally all the members-actors of a community (Jamal
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In line with the aforementioned, Bramwell and Lane (2000) summarised in their paper some key points that placed collaboration and partnerships at the forefront in tourism development and planning field. Mainly, they drew the argument against the oligopolisticaly made tourism policy decisions from few actors, known as local, economic, and political elites (Andriotis, 2006). Consequently, they supported the broadly based ownership of decisions around a domain that will result democratic empowerment, operational advantages and robust tourism products (Jamal and Getz, 1995; Timothy, 1999, Bramwell and Lane, 2000). Hence, it seems that when the apparatus refines processes for joint decision-making (Jamal and Getz, 1995, p.192) via a coherent and socio-politically inclusive [way] (Roberts and Simpson, 1999, p. 315) and brings together, in the name of development, key interest groups resources, such as expertise, experience, information, and capital, then inevitably destinations could gain a viable competitive advantage (Bramwell and Lane, 2000). Usually that could be done through highly structured [] [and] legally binding agreements, [otherwise] [] through unstructured verbal agreements [] [among participants] (Selin and Chavez, 1995, p. 845).
Nevertheless, Jamal and Getz (1995) and Reed (1997) acknowledged some essential pre-conditions for the facilitation of collaboration and partnership at community level, where stakeholders ought to believe that they are interdependent in planning [and managing domains], that they will be mutually benefited from collaboration, that decisions will be implemented, that the key groups will be involved and that the
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Finally, they identified constraints and facilitators of collaboration, as expressed by the private and the public sector (Ladkin and Martinez- Bertramini, 2002). In particular, the public sector identified (1) cultural barriers[] (e.g. Cusco has a conservative society that does not easily welcome change), (2) lack of shared vision[] of tourism development, (3) centralisation and limited decision-making power [] (e.g. at the regional level, where people feel they do not have the power to effectively manage their decisions [] [as the main goal is] to achieve the predetermined government objectives), (4) lack of trained people in the public sector, which hinders the possibility of undertaking joint decision-making processes, (5) limited budget of regional and local public institutions, and (6) lack of clearly defined roles, due to the presence of multiple public agencies in the tourism sector with overlapping duties and responsibilities(ibid, p. 86-7). From another spectrum, the private sector identified (1) absence of a long-term strategy towards joint decision-making processes[], (2) short-term objectives due to the changes of public officials as a consequence of elections or changes of the heads at national and regional levels[], (3) poor information about tourism policies from the government[], (4) slow decision-making processes and implementation of
decisions[], (5) multiplicity of public agencies with tourism-related functions, which means that too many organisations are involved in the decision-making process, and (6) lack of an organisation to lead and articulate collaborative planning efforts(ibid, p. 87).
In the meantime, it would be promiscuous to conceive those preconditions and indicators as being de facto. For that reason, the writer chose to draw a more reliable picture of the collaborative policy making processes through the holistic presentation of conceptualized frameworks that will enhance consequentially the understanding of the basic rationale and applicability of collaboration planning. For instance, Bramwell and Sharman introduced in 1999 a framework that measures the extent of collaborative process in local tourism policy and seeks to verify whether it is inclusionary, reduces
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Another three staged framework, as originated from Gray and McCann in 1983, has been presented, in an enriched and advanced context by Jamal and Getz, through which tourism collaborative arrangements develop (Bramwell and Lane, 2000, p. 10). So, the first stage consists of problem-setting (identifying key stakeholders and issues), and is followed by the second stage of direction-setting (identifying and sharing future
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Antecedents -Crisis -Broker -Mandate -Common vision -Existing networks -Leadership -Incentives
Problem setting --Recognise interdependence -Consensus on legitimate -Common problem definition -Perceived benefits to stakeholders -Perceived salience to
Direction Setting -Establish goals -Set ground rules -Joint information search -Explore options -Organise subgroups
Structuring -Formalizing relationships -Roles assigned -Tasks elaborated -Monitoring and control systems designed
Figure 2.3: An evolutionary model of tourism partnerships (Selin and Chavez, 1995, p.848)
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Figure 2.4: The four types of cooperation necessary for the development of
successful integrative tourism
From this debate, apart from the types of collaboration, also the nature of collaboration should not be ignored. Hence, the writer brings forward the already mentioned Mandells continuum of collaboration and partnerships, as a mechanism that involves a whole range of relationships and is comprised by a sum of stages where collaborative efforts evolve and progress over time (Ladkin and Martinez- Bertramini, 2002). Thus, Mandell described partnerships in his paper, as the linkages or interactive contacts between two or more organisations, intermittent co-ordinations or mutual
adjustment of the policies and procedures of two or more actors to accomplish some objective, ad hoc or temporary task-force activity among actors to accomplish a purpose or purposes, permanent and/or regular coordination between two or more actors through a formal arrangement (e.g. a council) to engage in limited activity to achieve a purpose or purposes, a coalition where interdependent and strategic actions are taken, but where purposes are narrow in scope and all actions occur within the participants themselves or involve the sequential or simultaneous activity of the participants, a collective network structure where there is a broad mission and joint and strategically interdependent action(1999, p.6).
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Aside from collaboration planning, integrative planning has been also emerged, that shares almost the same collective values with the former. In reality, integrative planning supports the integration of tourism into the overall plan and total development strategy of a country or region developed at higher levels (Timothy, 1998, p. 52). Indeed, local governments attempt often to integrate themselves in the wider development context, with the aim to establish greater market presence through developing and strengthening regional relations and by taking part in programmes, as induced by the top hierarchical government forces (Dredge, 2001). Certainly, despite the commonalities of collaboration and integrative planning, it has been critically stated that it is impossible to consider all elements in the planning process [] at once; [therefore] the introduction of alternative approaches, such as community based planning has been a response to its recognised deficiencies.
For instance, bear in mind that rural tourism does not develop in a vacuum [rather] it is embedded in a given social, political and historical context (Verbole, 2000, p. 479), where the needs, demands, and values of [various] actors [could affect] the ecological, economic, and sociocultural resources of destinations (Jamal and Getz, 1999, p.290). Such collective planning aids the representation of various public interests and foremost the public good in particular, through community and the wider stakeholder involvement, as being part of the bottom- up developmental approach (Reed, 1997). At the start though of this discussion about community based planning and with the overwhelming goal of preciseness, the writer ought to clarify the vague community term. From the tourism perspective, community can be defined in terms of a geographical area [] as citizens within a given locality, [otherwise it could be defined] as a group of people with shared interests and origins, [such as a local] business sector (Aas et al, 2005, p. 30).
Consequently, community based planning is a mechanism addressed to harness citizen or [communitys] opinion about development issues [] [in emergent tourism settings] [] and is subject to the expression of power relations in different policy
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The writer may also say that all those authors seem likely to agree with what Murphy noted in the middle of 80s that if tourism is to become successful and self perpetuating industry many have advocated, it needs to be planned and managed as a renewable resource industry based on local capacities and community decision making (1985, as cited by Hall, 2000, p. 33). Fundamentally, this quote raises simultaneously issues about the community based planning and the sustainable tourism development, which contradict with the conventional ethos of tourism and highlight the socially and ecologically benignity of tourism activities that aimed to avoid stakeholder conflicts, balance tourism development growth, secure the long term viability of resources and tourists satisfaction (Holden, 2000). So, in order to achieve sustainable rural development it is prompt to secure the full supportiveness of rural community; however who really decides, who participates and at the end who benefits and who loses in rural tourism development (Verbole, 2000, p.480) are crucial raised questions, as communities are with no doubt heterogeneous entities. Under these circumstances, it
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Here, the writer takes the initiative to match in some way the community based planning with the leftist approach as originated from the third ways bipolar view of tourism planning approaches (Burns, 2004) (Look at the Table 2.2). Certainly, those two approaches seem likely to fit, since the leftist approach relies on local people and knowledge that used to drive tourism goals. The leftist approach assumes a community with a high level of tourism control and management; a broad based and open-democratic structure; an equitable decision making process; a high degree of individual participation in decision making and a high amount of local ownership(Mitchel, 1998, as cited by Jamal and Lagiewski, 2006, p.2). Last but not least Timothy (1999) has introduced in his article (Look at Figure 2.5) a simplistic normative model of participatory tourism planning, which embraces the involvement of community in decision making process, the distribution of tourism benefits to the locals and most importantly the education of the locality. Noteworthy, the latter one according to Timothy might work as a mean, which could optimize the great potential of tourism towards the strengthened community at the professional, vocational and entrepreneurial levels (1999).
. Figure 2.5: A Normative Model of Participatory Tourism Planning (as obtained from Timothy, 1998, p.372).
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Aiming for an independent, differentiated Aiming to maximize market spread through destination with minimal dependency on the familiarity of the product, undifferentiated, core. Focus on sustainable human homogenized product development on core
development goals as defined by local with a focus on tourism goals set by outside people and local knowledge. The key planners and the international tourism question driving development is what can industry tourism give us without harming us? Holistic Economistic
Table 2.2: Bipolar View of tourism planning approaches Burns 2004 (as obtained from Jamal and Lagiewski, 2000, p.1). In flow with the aforementioned and despite the assertion of Murphy (1988) about the importance of involving primarily the community, as key stakeholders in the tourism destination development process (Hall, 1999), tourism industry seemed, so far, to form partnerships with just a few community based groups and not with the wider public community, which reflects more or less tokenism rather than real power of community members (Arnstein, 1969) (ibid). This situation portrays oversimplified and in first hand the difficulty to implement community based planning in absolute terms. That arises from the lack of political will and resistance of government authorities. Often, they used to perceive antagonistically communitys empowerement and that position could be interpreted from their side, as a loss of power and control over the planning and development process (Hall, 2000).
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In every case, the over-centralized public administration structure, the widespread patronclient relationship, the elitist approach to democracy and development, and the unequal income distribution (Tosun, 2006, p. 503) reflect usually the dominant socioeconomic conditions of a given country, which seem to constrain the ad hoc equal community participation in policy and planning of a given destination, region or a country. This situation contradicts with the assumption that the planning and policy process is pluralistic and that all people have the same access to economic and political resources (Reed, 1997). Therein, lies the challenge of empowering and developing the communitys skills with the aim to bring locals at the forefront and enhance their capabilities to combat with all the granted adversities arisen from the status quo and then to make well informed decisions. Such as, the Indonesian Ecotourism Network that used to work as a mechanism which raises awareness and supplies training material about community participation in ecotourism and a booklet on how to become a well skilled eco-guider (Scheyvens, 2002).
This author follows the same path with Pearce (1995) and Timothy (1999), where they opined that education of host communities is vital for the socially sustainable tourism development and evolves and changes over the different phases of development
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Thus, when developers or local authorities build community capacity through education and rise of self awareness, then community members could undertake projects with independence and skill (Jamal and Lagiewski, 2006, p. 2), or they could simply participate or negotiate collaboration (Aas, 2005, p. 43), as well as they could monitor tourism development and lobby or protest for change (Scheyvens, 2002, p. 230), when tourism reaches social and environmental degradation levels. Indeed, Sadan and Churchman argued that community planning is a purposeful activity designed [] by any professional [i.e.] town planner, rural developer, community organiser,[or] educator, [which aimed] to build a new community or help strengthen an existing one, either in social and or physical terms (1997, p.4). Apart from education as such, there are many other techniques directed to involve and inform stakeholders in tourism planning the drop in centres, the nominal group technique sessions, citizen surveys, focus groups, citizen task forces and consensus building meetings(Yuksel and Bramwell,1999, p.351). Aggregately, all the aforementioned imply that community based tourism planning is a process underpinned mainly by the principle of equity and in turn empowers intrinsically the community (Bahaire and Elliott-White, 1999).
Meanwhile, community participation in policy-making and planning involves changing citizen power relationships with other stakeholders, such as state and reflects existing structures of the society, within which tourism planning and development takes
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Figure 2.6 Normative typologies of community participation (as obtained from Tosun, 2006, p. 494).
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Lastly, even if resident responsive [or with other words community based] tourism (CBT) is the watchword for tomorrow (Ritchie, 1999, p. 206), Blackstock does not hesitate to criticize heavily the community based tourism as being unrealistic and nave (2005, p.45). The author denotes that although CBT uses the discource of community development, [in reality it] sidesteps community developments social traditions of social justice and local empowerement,[] [since it] focuses on maximizing the economic stability of the industry(ibid). This comes from the observation that usually tourism development has been legitimized as being locally controlled and responsive to communitys interests, although in reality just a few communities are capable to protect their visions and interests from global, national and regional monetary
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As it was mentioned earlier tourism planning is maturing as a discipline, where new approaches emerge that place emphasis on the coordination of private and public sector organisations[] and bring public participation right into the core of the decision making process(Buhalis and Costa, 2006,p.168). Additionally, Hall drew in his paper, the ideal collaborative approach towards tourism planning that involves a wide set of stakeholders excluding the corporatist perspective, which will meet the public interest (1999). In reality, those powerful groups, who share common discourses about developments and politics form coalitions with the aim to dominate the decision making process (Bramwell, 2006). Accordingly, coordination of the tourism policy planning process and its involved parties hardly succeeds, since it is loosely arranged and foremost it is a political activity (Hall, 1999). Nevertheless, it is imperative a negotiated order to prevail amongst multiple stakeholders in the undoubtedly complex planning systems- the destinations (Jamal and Getz, 1995), despite the apparent conflicts derived from local power structures that could possibly hamper the effectiveness of the planning effort, as a whole(Reed, 1999). Hence, those who are engaged in the debate about collaboration and tourism planning issues within a destination, should not be silent about the dimensions of power (Jamal and Getz, 1995), rather they should take an actor- oriented perspective that recognises rural tourism development and policy making as a dynamic, ongoing process that is shaped and reshaped by social actors (Verbole, 2000, p. 485).
At this stage, should be re-stated that tourism development and planning is not immune from the influence of interest groups-actors who seek to serve their own goals (Hall and Jenkins, 1995). Hall opined in 1999 that business groups tend to dominate the policy process through the exclusion and detriment of other interests [] [without substituting] the formal powers of governments (p.281). To do so, they need to exert
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Furthermore, it should be acknowledged that philosophically wise collaborative planning can be traced back in Habermas propositions of communicative action that conveys consensus among actors, who share common understanding and make trade-offs about alternative views(Dredge, 2006). Nevertheless, Flyvberg criticized communicative action as an oversimplified perspective that ignores Foucaults rationale about omnipresence power in all human affairs (ibid; Cheong and Miller, 2000). For instance, Foucault stated that power exists between every point of a social body, between a man a woman, between the members of a family, between a master and a pupil (1980d, Cheong and Miller, 2000, p. 375). In present time, Bramwell and Meyer state that power emerges from social relationships, such as actors negotiations about tourism development, and preserves from the distribution of resources, reputation and competition (2007). However, Foucault holds no idealized vision of democracy [], [since issues such as] negotiation and compromise [are often bypassed] and actors could be included or excluded [from the public debate] as part of the everyday politics, where speech is never completely open or free of influence and people dont always act for the rational good(Dredge, 2006, p.569). Therefore, there will always be questionable, whether the involved stakeholders, in the collaborative planning and development, are
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Thereinafter, those who support the need for an increased collaboration in the planning process share the basic premise of involving all people affected by tourism development (Jamal and Getz, 1995). Such argument is highly interrelated with the principles of stakeholder theory that could promote collaboration (Sauter and Leisen, 1999). Freeman suggested that an organisation, metaphorically the destination tourism development, is characterised by relationships with a series of stakeholder groups and individuals (Look at Figure 2.7), who can affect or could be affected by the achievement of certain objectives or goals of the destination (ibid). From a managerial perspective, the stakeholder theory posits that the various groups can and should have a direct influence on managerial decision-making (ibid, p.313), with a prerequisite to pay attention to the genuine interest of stakeholders that exceeds in many cases the tourism scope. In order collaboration to be successful, there is a need to identify shared values (Reed, 1997) among them that will support the adoption of a consensus model in the early stages of collaborative development, where the perspective of the most polarized stakeholders will be considered (Medeiros de Araujo and Bramwell, 1999).
. Figure 2.7 Tourism Stakeholder Map, (Freeman, 1984 as obtained from Sauter and Leisen, 1999, p.315)
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Figure 2.8: Stakeholder mapping: The power/interest matrix, (Marwick 2000, p.522).
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Chapter3: Methodology
Chapter 3
This dissertation is a case study of the territory Sitia, in Crete, which will examine its tourism development and policy planning practices with an initial focus upon the non satisfactory progress of the private initiated mega-resort project of Cavo Sidero.
3.1 Introduction
Gratton and Jones (2004, p. 4) define research as a systematic process of discovery and advancement of human knowledge. So, this section will identify and justify the research philosophy and strategy, the sample of people will also be identified, the data collection methods will be described and finally the limitations and ethics of the research will be presented. It would be helpful to make initially an overview of the research question and objectives of this study.
The already defined research question: whether exists any democratized and coordinated approach of tourism planning and development in Sitia that could possibly solve problems, such as conflicts and preserve Sitias social and environmental sustainability. So, the objectives of this research are:
ii. Explore how the Greek government participates in Sitias tourism development
and evaluate its collaborative stance.
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Chapter3: Methodology iii. Understand how stakeholders perceive collaboration and community- based
planning and investigate actors representation and involvement within the planning and development process
iv. Explore why the tourism development and planning process have not been
democratized in this emergent tourism settings and how it could be done.
Furthermore, the almost a decade postponement of the projects completion in Cavo Sidero led to the exploration of issues that surround the existing national or local policy planning approaches, which advocates apparently the adoption of an exploratory research path. The following table (Look at Table 3.1) summarises the main characteristics of exploratory research. Herein, the readers of this study should consider that the majority of exploratory research has its primary objective of the provision of insights into and comprehension of the problem situation confronting the researcher (Malhotra & Birks, 2000, p.76). Sitias tourism market could be still characterised as embryonic, that contradicts heavily with the dominant trends across the rest almost Page 38
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saturated island (Andriotis, 2001). Therefore, the results of this research might provide some insights upon the contemporary phenomenon and could bring forward some new valuable perspectives.
Objective
nature of phenomena.
Characteristics
and may evolve. Samples are small Data analysis can be qualitative or
Methods
Table 3.1 Exploratory research, (as obtained from Malhotra & Birks, 2000, p. 76).
The writer, in his attempt to gain sufficient and valid insights from the research, will seek to explore the most powerful actors about values, beliefs, attitudes and different perspectives within the destination system. In the case studies, the commonly employed data collection methods are questionnaires, interviews, observation, and documentary analysis (Saunders et al. 2003, p. 93). Nevertheless, in this paper, observations and Page 39
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questionnaires, due to time constraints have been excluded. In a manner of speaking, this study is based upon primary and secondary data, where the writer follows the qualitative research stream. In particular, it could be said that this tourism related paper is an descriptive phenomenological and in some cases interpretive study which distances itself from the the bonds of realism and positivism (Bate, 1997) and recognises the inherent complexity and multiculturality, the paradox and contradiction, the competing values and contests of meaning that characterise the [] (Gurney and Humphreys, 2006, p. 86) multi-stakeholder environments with apparent power differentials. This means that
qualitative research is an approach that leads towards the so called verstehen notion, where it describes and explains how people live and articulate the socially constructed reality (Johnson et al., 2006).
Nandhakumar&Jones, 1997). Overall, qualitative research seeks to humanize problems and gaining an emic or insiders perspective (Phillimore and Goodson, 2004, p. 4), whilst hoping to communicate those results to the outsider world.
Nevertheless, this does not mean generalizing data from one context across the entire social world (Phillimore and Goodson, 2004). So far, qualitative research has distanced itself from its positivistic past (Jensen & Lauritsen, 2005, p.61) and researchers tend to adopt a non positivist model of reality (Silverman, 2005, p.9), where they do reject the one and objective truth with universal laws (Davies, 2003, p.
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102). Respectively, consider the present study; it would be nave to assume that the outcome of this research could be applicable to the rest of the world, since Sitia does not fit, by definition, in the developed nor in the developing world rather somewhere in between, where unique socio-economic and cultural conditions prevail. On top of that
the writer will decode and translate (Van Maanen, 1983) the intersubjectivity and idiosyncrasies of actors (Rapport, 2000) via the contribution of interviews, informal chats and other secondary sources of data, as it seeks to achieve the understanding and the thick description of a communitys interworked systems of [] signs (Geertz, 1973, as cited by Smart, 1998, p.113) and structures of concealed meanings (Rapport, 2000, p.219). That is of great importance, within the problematic situation in Sitia, since people could communicate and explore their differences of their visions and beliefs about tourism development and planning, thereinafter it could improve their reciprocal relationships, collaboration and finally reduce the distracting conflicts (Elmendorf and Luloff, 2001).
At the meantime, experts- scientists demand a methodological rigidity and a theoretical embodiment across the research project that will secure its scientific faade (Dixon-Woods& Fitzpatrick, 2001); otherwise the rigor and validity of qualitative research paper will be considered as being dubious (Decrop, 1999). That position though might exert pressures on the researcher to conform to the scientific taken for granted criteriology of goodness, which inevitably could sacrifice researchers creativity and artful orientation (Whittemore et al., 2001; Dixon-Woods& Fitzpatrick, 2001). Bear in mind though that any researcher distant from the conventional ethos appears as being more flexible and capable of shifting from one research method to another, and often by adopting different overtones of research, always though for researchers own sake and the flourishment of its project. In this paper, despite Fettermans assertion in 1989 that no study, qualitative or otherwise can be conducted without an underlying theory or model (O Donnel and Cummins, 1999, p. 84), the writer followed loosely instead the three staged framework of scope, intensity and degree of consensus (Bramwell and Sharman, 1999) and many other models, since the domain of tourism policy making and development is so vast and complex that an exclusive adoption of particular model will
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restrain the plurality and the insightful description(Hammersley, 2001) of the phenomenon. In order to prevent criticism, the writer would rather say that the validity of a study depends primarily on the understanding and interpretation of the phenomenon (Page, 1997) and not on its objectivity and its methodological rigidity, therefore the reader-audience ought to adopt the perspective of the oppressed than the oppressor (Hammersley, 2001, p. 91).
Qualitative research is ideal for gaining deeper and different insight and understanding of behaviours, attitudes and fillings[]especially when the purpose of the research is to gain insight rather than prove something to be true or false (Lehmann et al., 1998, p.130) The aim of the research was to gain a holistic view of the area under study (Malhotra and Birks, 2000). The notions of collaboration and community involvement, within the public policy and tourism development domain in Greece, are almost conceptually strange in locals and authoritative actors conscious; therefore the research might gain out of it some deeper points. Additionally, their nature is very complex and has various theoretical and practical connotations, such as stakeholder theory, power, tourism as such, social sustainability and so on, therefore quantifiable data might not be able capture this multidimensional topic adequately (Malhotra and Birks, 2000).
Overall, the qualitative research and particular the interpretive paradigm aims to promote the understanding of the tourism world not from the narrow sense of a business world where the key social actors are only tourists and tourism providers, instead by
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considering all the affected stakeholders from operations of the tourism environment, such as tourism employees, local authorities, communities and so on (Tribe, 2001). Additionally, this alternative research method involves the studied use and collection of a variety of empirical materials-case study, personal experience, life history, interview, observational, historical, interactional and visual texts-that describe routine and problematic moments and meanings in individuals life(Denzin and Lincoln, 1994, as cited by Riley and Love, 2000, p.168). Therefore, the researcher through the use of interconnected interpretive methods and whilst taking into account stakeholders subjectivity, ethics, values and politics could be seen as a bricoleur who pieces together sets of practices to make a solution of a puzzle (Phillimore and Goodson, 2004, p.34).
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Descriptive
Explanatory
= more frequent
= less frequent
Table 3.2: Uses of different types of interview in each of the main research categories (as obtained from Saunders et al., 2003, p. 248)
Overall, the reasons that led the writer to choose in-depth and semi-structured interviews are the opportunities of:
Interviewing authoritative and professional people, known also as key informants that can provide rich and spontaneous replies to open ended questions (Elmendorf and Luloff, 2001, p. 142) that will inevitably illustrate in a close up the social reality; Detailed understanding of complicated issues((Malhotra & Birks, 2000); Uncovering great depth of insights(ibid, p.182); Attributing responses directly to the respondent(ibid); Allowing researchers to be flexible with questions and at the same time allowing participants to express themselves as they like; Clarifying misunderstandings and obtain further explanations; Probing spontaneously for further information through subsidiary questions (Gratton & Jones, 2004); Sampling advantages as it gains greater control over respondent selection, and hence, more depth, context, and flexibility in the process of inquiry (Cassell and Symon, 2004, as cited by Stokes and Bergin, 2006, p.29) Improving the quality of the data, whilst building a close rapport and a high degree of trust (Webb, 1995 as cited by Stokes and Bergin, 2006, p.29);
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Observing indirectly respondents characteristics, during the contact zone which will support holistically the data analysis.
Nevertheless, with the adoption of an in-depth and semi-structured interview certain drawbacks occur:
Problems of reliability; there is the danger the interview to be driven from the respondent instead of the interviewer (Bryman & Bell, 2003). Indeed, the writer, during the first interview, experienced the difficulty of not imposing the interview procedures to the non cooperative enough participant; as a result the interview lasted no more than 18 minutes and more or less the interviewee spent his time on technocratic and legally issues. The quality of the collected data depends heavily upon the skills of the interviewer, meaning both experience as well as knowledge background. Often the lack of experience might cause some frustration to the researcher in his attempt to prevent any mistakes or biases (Russell, 2005), as well as it could diminish the objective or subjective reality of a phenomenon. Nevertheless, the lack of experience is not necessarily a bad thing, since it keeps the researcher in a mood of alertness that makes him very flexible and adaptive. Often, the unstructured data collection could make the results vulnerable to the interviewers personal idiosyncrasy, where critical readership is imperative (Seale, 1999). Finally, developing an interview guide, carrying out interviews and analysing their transcripts are all highly time consuming activities for the researcher(Cassel and Symon, 2004, p.21)
Chapter3: Methodology
of the research. Comprehensively Saunders et al. (2003) described in their book Bourque and Clarks (1994) assertion on how researchers tend to formulate the questions of their research. They acknowledged that researchers used to adopt or adapt (p. 213) questions, which were used in the past, as well as they used to form their own questions (ibid) that seek to trace precisely the solution of a problematic phenomenon. Sometimes it is more efficient to adopt or adapt questions than developing your own (ibid). On top of that existed questions might be very helpful to every researcher, since they could entail different perspectives that the researcher might have not think of them before. Thus, the writer borrowed some questions from the existed literature. For instance the writer obtained valuable questions from Bramwell and Sharmans analysis of their 3- staged framework. Additionally, the writer has to admit that the published questions from the OECD in the Tourism Committee about Regional Policy and Tourism in October 1999 were of great value too.
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Sitia, a territory with the strongest political opposition within the country, towards the present Government, made the Chairman less cooperative.
At the meantime, a sample or a subset of a specific population needs to be chosen for the implementation of this study (Gratton & Jones, 2004). Respectively, the researcher adopted non- probability sampling [] based on personal judgement (Malhotra & Birks, 2000, p. 352). This judgmental sampling takes often the form of a snowball procedure that is the least time consuming and the most convenient method. Initially some stakeholders were chosen from the stakeholder mapping, which was drawn during the first interview. Beyond this, some informants have been preferred on the basis of their organisational and community positions, reputations, knowledge of the issues under study, or the fact that they are individuals described by others as knowing a lot about this place or thing (Elmendorf and Luloff, 2001, p.142). Another important criterion was to verify peoples willingness to participate in this investigation. Nevertheless, despite the writers intention to present a truly representative sample of primary stakeholders none was interviewed from the Minoan PLC company.
In more details, a total of 9 interviews were conducted between 18/07/2007 and 31/07/2007 in the territory of Sitia after arranging appointments with each of the identified key informants. Those interviews varied in length from 18 minutes to 106 minutes and averaged approximately 42 minutes. In the beginning of those interviews the researcher stated the purpose of this study and then explained how the process would be like, as a response to the arisen inefficiencies from the first interview-conversation. In addition, participants were encouraged to analyse relevant issues to the topic; some of them were overenthusiastic and supplied the researcher with a decent amount of secondary data. From those interviews some of them were unstructured, others were semi-structured and two of them could be characterised simply as conversations.
Chairman of Greek Tourism Development: Conversation=Interviewee 1 Prefect of Lasithi: Unstructured Interview= Interviewee 2 Mayor of Sitia: Semi-structured Interview= Interviewee 3
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Chapter3: Methodology
Ex mayor of Itanos and member of the prefecture board: Unstructured Interview= Interviewee 4 Deputy of Lasithi: Semi-structured Interview= Interviewee 5 Abbot of the Monastery Toplou and the vice-president of the Panagia Akrotiriani Foundation of Toplou Monastery: Unstructured Interview= Interviewee 6 Representative of the ecological group of Sitia and member of the prefecture board: Unstructured Interview= Interviewee 7 Chairman of Sitian Federation of Hoteliers: Semi-structured Interview= Interviewee 8 Chairman of Sitia Development Organisation S.A. (OAS): partially Conversation and written interview= Interviewee 9.
In the name of this study, the writer had also the chance during this investigation to watch on TV the Sitian municipal council to be in session about the regional development and the further expansion of the local Technological Educational Institutions (T. E. I.=Greek Polytechnic Universities). The writer drew helpful
conclusions about the nature of decision making process, the existence or not of democratized procedures and the existence or not of power differentials among participants.
Chapter3: Methodology
and non-written documents (video-recordings, pictures, maps, drawings, television programmes) have been retrieved with the aim to meet the existed objectives of this study (Saunders et al., 2003). As compared with primary data, secondary data are collected rapidly and easily at a relatively low cost, and in a short time (Malhotra & Birks, 2000, p. 99). Apart from those advantages, secondary data are deemed as permanent and easily accessible source of data to others, where researchers could evaluate and compare with their own primary data (Saunders et al., 2003). Noteworthy, Sandelowski commented that one important means of enhancing the utility of qualitative research is to make the most of data that have been already collected (1997, p. 129). Despite their advantageous characteristics researchers ought to treat them with caution, since they do not necessarily match with the studys needs and additionally they might make things even more complicated (Saunders et al., 2003).
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and environmental sustainability, where the writer attempts to explore the sociocultural constructed reality. Part of this argument is deemed to be Richardsons suggestion (1990) that participation in a culture includes participations in the narratives of that culture, a general understanding of the stock of meanings and their relationships to each other (Denzin and Lincoln, 2003, p. 345). Thus, the writer shall pay heavily attention on the 4 unstructured interviews, where each of them developed a subjective narrative review of what has happened from the pre to the post Minoan PLC era in Sitia.
responsibilities the researcher will preserve respondents anonymity, even if they are easily identifiable in such a small community, as Sitia. Before moving ahead with the data analysis and conclusions, the limitations of this study will be outlined.
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The reviewed theoretical frameworks represent mostly the westernized world, rather than the Greek one. Thus, this research might be based upon a biased basis. The translation of the interviews questions was not precise due to the lack of expertise, that fact itself might have misled respondents and subsequently the results, too. Time constraints and costs had eliminated the options for the researcher, not only in terms of the sample size, but also in terms of the research method as such. Initially the writer was interested to conduct an ethnographic study. The noviceness of the researcher might constrain the effective data management, especially when considering the data overload (Cassell and Symon, 2004). The majority of participants, even if they were key stakeholders, did not have any truly tourism expertise. Unfortunately that constrained their understanding and comprehension of the topic. Finally, the interpretation of data can be affected by researchers social and cultural values. Therefore the writer, during the data analysis, sought to stick on the theoretical guides. Nonetheless, it would be an oxymoron claim that the researchers lenses will be disappeared from the following lines.
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4.1 Introduction
At this stage, in the name of the pre-constructed integrated resort, the Cavo Sidero, a case study will be presented that meant to illustrate and describe the state of affairs within Sitia. Noteworthy, one of the interviewees mentioned that this case is highly attractive, due to its great political nuance. So, the writer seeks to uncover within the following lines the presence or the absence of a democratized and coordinated approach of tourism planning and development. For a fuller and more accurate picture of reality the writer chooses apart from primary data analysis, to use in conjunction some relevant secondary data and already established Greek bibliography, always though in line with Chapter 2. All those could contribute to a thorough understanding of the situation in situ. The author, while acknowledging the danger to be criticised about lack of structure, responds that there is plenty of room in qualitative research for improvisation (Humphreys et al., 2003). Lastly, the novice researcher does not deny that data will be interpreted through its own lenses; it is an illusion to proclaim that subjectivity will diminish or disappear.
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Those indicators have not been resulted solely by this geographical isolation, rather the interviewee 7 raised another meaningful dimension; apparently Lasithi is, in political terms, the weakest prefecture in Crete. This political weakness could be explained mainly by the fact that Lasithi does not have a dominant centre, as Heraklion, Rethymnon, and Chania do, instead there are three equally demanding centres, Agios Nikolaos, Ierapetra and Sitia. Therefore, the perpetuated triple-pole litigation and the lack of communication and coordination within the prefecture led on the one hand into the exasperating delay of desirable development actions, like expansion of academic faculties and then into the irrational development of Lasithi, where already four
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Nevertheless, people, despite their socio-economical despair, should pay carefully attention to tourism phenomenon. Unfortunately, many cases, from the past, have proven that tourism is not the magic wand (Andriotis, 2006, p.630) that will automatically solve all the problems, and lead to the affluence of the societies, without any costs. Indeed, Crete as an island has been devastated all those years by unplanned tourism activities, with no agendas about environmental and cultural preservation, land planning and awareness raise of indigenous population (Andriotis, 2001). In a manner of speaking Crete has adopted all those years mass tourism, known as the 3S (Sun, Sea and Sand) model that has been expanded, even worse, including another S, sex (Buhalis, 1999). So far, the prefecture of Heraklion, and precisely its northern coastal line (Malia, Hersonisos, Stalida and so on), exhibits the highest level of tourism congestion within Crete (it produces 79% of the islands tourism-related GDP (Briassouli, 2003, p. 108)), and experiences heavily all the adverse impacts in sociocultural and environmental terms (Terkenli, 2005). Terkenli, quoted in her paper Rackham and Moodys assertion about the miserable condition in Crete, which confirms once again the absence of land planning
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Reasonably then, this conventional form of tourism has been criticised about downgrading natural and built environment. Additionally, Tsartas presents in his paper another set of problems that affect the competitiveness of the Cretan tourism product, in a period of fierce and global competition (2003). Crete, during the summer months, experiences intense seasonality of demand (ibid; Donatos and Zairis, 1991). In 2000 approximately 85 % of tourist arrivals by charter flights on the island were recorded between May to September with 75% occupancy rate that falls during the winter below 20 %( Andriotis, 2003, p.27). The outcome of this uneven distribution of demand is undoubtedly low tourism quality based on the under-utilization or excessive- utilisation of tourism facilities, seasonal employment and congested infrastructure, which exceeds occasionally the acceptable limits of carrying capacity (Andriotis, 2003; Briassoulis, 2003; Tsartas, 2003). Donatos and Zairis found out in their study that there is higher concentration in luxury than economy accommodation in the beginning and the end of Cretes tourism season (1991, p.519) as opposed to the middle season. Therein, they suggested that marketing and development efforts in Crete should narrow down to the high income tourists market and should focus on the expansion of tourism season (ibid).
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Overall, seasonality, lack of sufficient infrastructure, absence of land planning, over-dependence on tour operators are problems that Cretan tourism faces and portray all the typical structural and organisational problems rooted mainly in planning, marketing and management of tourism development (Bastakis et al., 2004, as cited by Soteriadis and Arvanitis, 2006, p. 4-5). Consequently, in order to eschew safely from the decline and with the overwhelming goal of preserving the economic viability of a destination, government and local authorities of Sitia seek to decrease the industrys dependence on sunlust tourism [] and increase the [domestic, tourism] product appeal, and the tourism spending by encouraging the establishment of integrated resort (Andriotis, 2006, p.108) in the rugged Peninsula of Cavo Sidero. Despite the great potential of integrated resorts, the adoption of sustainable patterns of development is
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This rationale should be outlined clearly on peoples vision about tourism. When the researcher was reviewing the interview transcripts noted that only the Interviewee 8 did not referred at all on sustainability as a concept; he focused instead to issues related to his domain. As opposed to that, the others followed a common line, they emphasised on the need to develop infrastructure, but then their major concern was tourism development in sustainable manners. The Interviewee3 comments that one of our missions is to protect the environment and our archeological sites. This is a one way path; there is no room for any inconsistencies, all those years our district has remained unspoilt and thats how we should keep it. Another mayor says that there will always be induced costs from human activities; thus the challenge rests on peoples capacity to handle them and may be to minimise them. Is this really possible? The Interviewee 6 admits the absence of specialized management organisations that could supervise and protect sensitive areas like the aesthetical forest of Vai. The key to this deficit might be raising societys sustainable awareness. Therefore, the Interviewee 9 proposes a balanced and
sustainable tourist growth of Sitias district based on the alternative forms of tourism of agricultural, nature based, cultural, culinary based, health, and sport, having always in mind the carrying capacity of the area. Those alternative forms of tourism will not only attract different tourist segments, but also could enhance a greener conscious to people, which will aid to the maintenance of traditional physiognomy of destinations without degrading their flora and fauna (Interviewee 5). Subsequently, according to the Interviewee 5, the economical, cultural, and social status of Sitias district will be transformed and will obey to global demands.
At the meantime, this widespread acceptance of sustainability by participants surprised the author, who has a first hand experience of the Greek reality. Is sustainability rationale really embedded to peoples conscious or is it just a fashionable thing to say? Here, the author will describe an oxymoron that took place during the interview with the abbot of the Monastery Toplou. During the meeting, the abbot received a phone call from
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Beyond peoples visions, the President of the Development Organisation of Sitia, during the conference of Big Tourism Investments in Eastern Crete, Development and Sustainability presented a set of preconditions that could secure the sustainable stance of tourism planning and development. Initially, infrastructural works need to take place, where the Interviewee 5 focuses on the three bridges of development, the internationalization of airport, expansion of the local port and reconstruction of the northern road axis. Then, to respect the spatial planning design of Sitia [] that has been published earlier in the Official Government Gazette (G. G. 4420/2006) which specifies the land use (Mayor of Sitia, 2007), and vitally to develop the S. H. O. O. A. P. (spatial study) of the municipality of Itanos, which will accommodate the integrated resort of Cavo Sidero. Along those spatial planning schemes, the establishment of independent management authority for the protection of the Aesthetic Forest of Vai is critical, not only because of its beauty, but also due to its liability to the Natura 2000 network. This urgency is clearly depicted on Interviewees 6 sayings remember what has happened in Greece this summer, fires all over. Tell me what is going to happen tomorrow, if a fire raiser comes and burns Vai, a real catastrophe! It was Gods will to remain as it is; this aesthetical forest is not supervised, controlled and protected by any official management authoritative body. Additionally, private investors together with local authorities should put into practice a thorough study of environmental impacts and set relevant environmental terms, open though for amendments, after conducting a free dialogue and continual monitoring. Together with those environmental terms, authorities ought to take
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Moreover, the society has not been ignored from this debate; the president emphasised on the education and specialization of the workforce and suggested the targeted local production which will satisfy tourism units needs. Further he encouraged the rejuvenation of the countryside by developing parallel activities with the proposed integrated resort. This was not a random choice, since he acknowledges that the single tourist development strategy magnifies dependencies and jeopardizes the long term prosperity of local economy (Ritchie, 1993, as cited by Buhalis, 1999, p. 342). A good example about Makrugialos has been displayed by a member of the Technical Chamber of Eastern Crete (Mayor of Makrugialos). Makrugialos as an area has roughly the same population size with the municipality of Itanos and its morphological and geographical profile looks alike. 35 years ago, 5 tourists came in Makrugialos; the locals served them immediately, but there was nothing, so they accommodated them with a few drachmas in stables, yes in stables![....]Obviously, all these didnt have any potential. The next step was to build some rooms to let [] the state was absent, no instructions, no contribution, no planning, these days all of them run out of business. Later on, 3 expatriates came from Africa and they did a good investment, one big hotel (Sun Wing Hotel). It is the only one that is economically viable today, I even could say that the whole Makrugialos is dependent on this hotel. Imagine, when the hotel starts running in May everything else starts running as well, in October when it shut downs the same happens to the rest, apparently there is a dependency.
Respectively, to avoid such negative phenomena from the past, the Interviewee 7 insists everything is a matter of collaboration and political pressures. So far, people have developed a clientelistic relationship with politicians, asking for favours to find a job and many other things. Everything starts from this corporatism. People need to escape from this fatalistic situation, people need to bring about a revolution in the political status look where we ended up, talking about revolution; having in mind the large investments people should exert political pressures demanding a cohesive democratic planning
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At this stage, the author will present you a trip to the past, whilst hoping to reveal the proceedings and the true interrelationships of actors (individuals, groups, organisations) throughout the adopted planning approach under the common interest or problem, meaning the Cavo Sidero investment (Selin and Chavez, 1995). In brief, some general information about the actual project will be given, next major actors will be identified and part of the negotiations about the study of environmental impacts will be discussed. So, the prevailed problems of conventional tourism made governments to react and promote high quality tourism, which entails selective tourism forms directed to welloff tourists, such forms have been supported by integrated resorts. Integrated resorts have been viewed as a reaction against the proliferation of unplanned coastal strips and an attempt to provide a carefully planned controlled and well defined tourism product (Wall, 1996, p. 715). Stanton and Aislabie summarised in their paper the true facet of integrated resorts. They are located outside urban areas, often in remote locations, dependent upon natural and/or manmade attractions, provide leisure and recreational activities to guests, offer high-quality services at high room rates, and have a low density of development compared with urban land use (Stanton and Aislabie, 1992, p.436).
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Therein, Minoan Group Plc is planning to construct one of the largest integrated resorts in the Mediterranean and uses the Aphrodite Hills in Cyprus as a benchmark. This project is the largest single inward investment in Greece (Simpkins, 2005). Simpkins highlighted the following paradox in the Telegraph newspaper, a small market valued company(20)[], which currently trades on the lightly regulated Ofex market, [from the 2nd of April of 2007 operates in the AIM stock exchange Londons market(Garefalakis, 2007)][] and contrasts with the scale of its project(802)(ibid). The projects total capacity equals to 7000 beds with a building density of less than 4.3% and contains five residential complexes (hotels), 750 villas, 250 townhouses, two 18-hole and one 9-hole golf courses, conference centers, 730 pools, retail shops, leisure facilities, an open-air theatre and a cultural center (Look at the Figure 4.2). From 1994 and onwards, the company refines continually its planning studies; only in 1998 Minoan Plc achieved to sign the works- contract with the Panagia Akrotiriani Foundation, in 2002 got the zoning and the archeological approvals (Andriotis, 2005) and recently, in March of 2007, the environmental study of impacts was accepted by the Ministry of Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works (YPEHODE). Based on these facts and on peoples sayings, the author chooses to place the proceedings of Sitias tourism planning and development in the first two stages of tourism policy process, where
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Figure 4.1: Map of Sitias District and Location of Cavo Sidero Investment.
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Chapter4: Results-case study 4.3 Leading Actors of this investment 4.3.1 The Greek Church
Everything started in the 1988, where Tritsis navigated a bill, known as Tritsis Law, through Parliament which gave the right to the state to transfer part of the ecclesiastical fortune (30%) to its own right and fortified the nationalization of the Organisation Management of Ecclesiastical Fortune(O. D. E. P.). Hitherto, this Law has never been enforced by any past and present Governments, who clearly wanted to avoid conflicts with the Greek Church. So, the local church in 1991 and in the fear of this inactive bill, founded Panagia Akrotiriani Foundation, which bypasses certainly the ecclesiastical structural frame (Interviewee 7). Officially, this Foundation has been established to develop, beneficial to the public, works in an attempt to leverage the criticism about low social actions (Anipsitakis, 2006). To continue with, the Interviewee 4 beyond the bill, connoted micro politics among the two Metropolitan Bishops of Lasithi prefecture; on the one hand there is the Ierapitnis and Sitias and on the other hand is Petras, who coincidently is the president of the O. D. E. P Metaphorically, in a kind of a coup, the Metropolitan Bishop Ierapitnis and Sitias together with the most powerful ring of the present developmental initiative, the abbot of the Monastery of Toplou, formed the aforementioned foundation. Its board of directors consists of 7 members; president is the Metropolitan Bishop Ierapitnis and Sitias, vice-president is the abbot, clerk is a priest and the rest four are laymen; none of them are elective members, instead they are appointed exclusively by the president (Interviewee4, 2007).
From the first moment, our municipality, with one voice, was requesting from the Foundation, that every present mayor of Itanos (prior the integrative Kapodistrias programme in 2000, Itanos was a village) and Sitia municipalities should be part of this board [] Indeed, at that time, they appointed their own head of Itanos village and Kouroupakis the mayor of Sitia. Some years later, after the elections, Kouroupakis lost his mayoralty, surprisingly though he still remained member of this board [] So, what I want to say here is that a single person that no one controls it, can do whatever within this
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Following, in 1992, the foundation announced a competition about the 26000 hectares of land, to attract prospective indigenous, national or international investors; interestingly the foundation did not specify a priori the possible context of the forthcoming investments. Then, three different companies joined this competition with a direct interest towards tourism facilities, the Loyalward (British), the Universal Bay (Austrian) and a Greek one. The Interviewee 6 declares that the foundation ended up carefully to the Loyalwards plan based on transparent proceedings and with the contribution of specialized financial and legal consultants. All those actions were embedded immediately with the fundamental mission of preserving the well being of our locality, so I can reassure you that the present investment, until its last phase of implementation will be treated on this basis.[] After we chose Loyalward as a contractor, weve sent to the Ministry of Economy and Finance the most attractive proposals of Loyalward and Universal Bay, in order to justify comparatively our choice.[] We have been accused several times of following non-legitimate procedures; some people still doubt about the legitimacy of the used criteria that assigned the investment to the particular company, others raise objections about the nature of the memorandum with Loyalward and many other issues.[.] You know very well, from the
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From this perspective, the Interviewee 3, one of the main supporters of the Cavo Sidero, claims that this modus operandi is undoubtedly undemocratic and negative, but operates in accordance with the legal frame. Someone could say this right coexists, I would respond yes, this is truth. Although, it would be better to handle this in the right direction of defending the society, and not to punish the society itself, because chooses development. A good example is Naxos; it is an island of 7000 people that needs to construct a new port. Few people made appeals to the Council of state in order to stop this project. What happened? 6000 people demonstrated and fought in favour for this project. Unfortunately, rules are rules and the council of state had to follow the time consuming procedures, so locals are still waiting. To conclude, people do not respect the democratic functionality of decision making process, which entails deliberations and objections, thereby am proposing the emergence of a flexible independent body that will be responsive about issues around the development domain.
4.3.2. State
The Chairman of Minoan Group Plc, Christopher Egleton enthusiastically states in the Telegraph newspaper that his company got the backing of the Greek Prime Minister, Costas Karamanlis; in details he said we are pretty confident that the new government in Greece is keen to encourage inward investment and will give us a fair hearing when it comes to deciding on environmental permitting and planning permission for the scheme (Simpkins, 2005). The governmental intervention has not been confined Page 65
All of the above imply more or less political intervention, where state used to rely and subsidize private actors in the name of development, whilst hoping to boost the national economy and reduce deficits, with other words to hide holes (Anipsitakis, 2006). One member of the technical chamber suggests that all those years planning is deficient, it is purposively deficient. This is an ingrained political choice of governments; in our country never has been completed a basic policy planning of what we want, where do we want it, why do we want it, in what scale, on what quality and so on; because if a comprehensive planning would coexist then nobody could do whatever and wherever. Neither investor would be dependent on politicians, to approve or to reject projects, to finance or not to and so on. With a robust national public administration system, there would be no need to be addressed neither in every governmental committee nor to ministers in every occasion; instead there would have been bodies with adequate constitutional structures that could control, plan, evaluate and set their terms prima facie(2006). All these could be interpreted as corporatism where, under the umbrella of
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In a general spectrum, governments set the legal frame, hold an executive role that is centralized decision making, and allocate European and national funds to local authorities. Thereby, disempowered vertical intergovernmental relations are sustained between state and local authorities, where increased bureaucracy prevails (Getimis and Grigoriadou, 2004). Nonetheless, Interviewee 5 claims that any legislative initiative, derive from the state; but the state listens first and then responds to local bodies needs and demands. This process applies also in the tourism domain; ministry of tourism is at the forefront and gets in touch through the national committee of tourism with tourism representatives of every prefecture, but the problem rests on the frequency of those meetings, they seldom take place maybe once or twice per year. Beyond the symbolic cooperation, tourism development plans are controlled by the central government, [] which is located in the capital city in Athens and likely does not incorporate sufficiently the needs and desires of local communities (Andriotis, 2001, p. 305). Further, five participants agreed that the lack of zoning system and land registry system constrain even more decentralization; so local authorities remain state dependent. Regardless, municipalities used to be normally, responsible for local planning and development initiatives, next prefectures follow and then peripheries. Peripheries do not represent the central state, instead they are decentralized services. So, a proposed development scheme will be implemented as soon as collaboration among those three scales will flourish (Interviewee 5, 2007).
In terms of collaboration the Interviewee 2, signifies that there are bureaucratic procedures that link decisions from different hierarchical levels. For instance MPEs are approved by YPEHODE, after the reached agreements-permissions of prefectural boards.
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In the same spirit, Minoan Plc proposes the formation of its own body for the strategic and sustainable management of development. The legal representative of Minoan PLC states during the meeting of the technical Chamber that this is the responsibility of other bodies, the states. We dont want to replace the state, the
opposite. But we believe that this kind of bodies do not operate here in Greece in an efficient time-frame. So this body will be located within the integrated resort and will manage and monitor all the phases of the development process, from the planning, the construction up to point that will come into operation based on the projects discussed terms. Its findings would be available at any time to any bodies. This body will be a system that will respect the international requirements of ISO and in the direction of a sustainable project(2006). It could be said that the literature responds in some way to
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4.3.3. Community
In a first glance, when the researcher was conducting the interviews got immediately the feeling that all decisions are driven by the industry actors in concert with the state (Mitchell and Reid, 2001). Additionally, as it was mentioned above, the investors had to get the permission about the development plans from external regulatory actors, therefore remains questionable whether communitys needs and desires have been incorporated so far in this longitudinal debate. Before approaching this issue, in more details, it would be interesting to quote Hernandez et al. assertion about how communities, from isolated peripheries, do perceive the emergence of integrated resorts. Community members generally favour the proposed resort but with mixed feelings. [] they seem to be aware of some of the costs and benefits of tourism. They may, however, be overly optimistic about the potential positive effects of an enclave resort on local employment. [] are rightly concerned about the future distribution of economic benefits []. However, they are generally unconcerned about the many detrimental effects that such a mega-resort may have on the ecological environment (Hernandez et al., 1996, p.774). This happens in Sitia, too. The representative of the ecological group said that investors and primary stakeholders brainwash indirectly community, when promising a heaven on earth. All of us we hide an inner child that believes in fairytales; the sooner or later people will change their mind as they will start experiencing the first impacts of this project, but then it will be too late (Anipsitakis, 2006).
Noteworthy, when the researcher was exploring communitys involvement in tourism development through planning and decision making, notifies that there was a
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Nevertheless, despite the intentions it seems that all those, who appeared keen to the communitys participation, were describing more or less symbolic-token participation and not societys true power. The Interviewee 6 comments it is good for the community to participate within the decision making process but in many cases especially in small societies as opposed to the big ones, it is difficult to base your decisions on them, since with no doubt they lack education, their intellectual level is low. How can an investor trust and occupy locals with strange fields. It is too risky. The investors will not accept it. It is fundamental to get acceptance by the community after informing and explaining to them relevant issues about the project, but this scenario differs a lot from the option to base your plans and decisions on random non specialized people. The author raises here some objections, first of all the investors did not conduct a priori any real research within the community about the project. Only once they implemented an informal survey, part of their supposed sustainable strategy, with the aim to clarify locals educational level, due to recruitment purposes and then to specify the availability of groceries within the district. Further, even if we accept the low educational level of the society, investors and local authorities have not taken any drastic measures to combat this problem and empower the society. Only a few training schemes already exist; they have been
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Apart from peoples capability to participate and collaborate, there is a lack of willingness from their side. Nobody is interested, there is a dominant inertiawhoever does something works at a full blast with all those problems and the rest simply dont care. They might want development, but then they do not respond and contribute to the public call (Interviewee 5, 2007). One journalist perceives this stance as a reflection of peoples carpe diem []; this lifestyle preserves an individualistic, non active society of civilians (Kalfelis, 2007). This statement is not a spontaneous estimate; rather it might correspond to the reality. For instance, the Abbot described, during the committee of the technical chamber, the following situation. When Minoan Plc invited people to fill up applications forms about prospect job positions, it roused strong public feeling with dozens applicants. In contradiction, when they invited them to conduct dialogue in the conference of OAS, the attendance was minimal. This shows something; unfortunately our society is not mature enough (The Abbot of the Monastery Toplou). From another point of view, it could be said that that the present non- transparent status quo, within Sitia, de-motivates people to take consciously collective actions. Overall, Greek cities lack the norms of reciprocity, mutual trust, collective and civil engagement, which constitute essential elements of civicness and the base for successful public-private partnerships (Schmitter, 2002, as cited by Getimis and Grigoriadou, 2004, p.13).
4.3.4. Ecologists
The Interviewee 7, in terms of planning and collaboration, pointed out that state does not have a coherent vision, not even the mechanisms to put into practice their policies, [] peripheries and their development depend in absolute terms on private
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In March 2007, civilians and ecological groups made appeal to the Council of state about the Cavo Sidero investment. According to the representative of the ecological group in Sitia, the mission was not to use the appeal coercively; it was their last choice. From the first moment we expressed our negativism about the transformation of this huge land into a monopolistic tourism business that constitutes theft of public wealth and reminds me a lot David Harveys saying about the accumulation by dispossession (2003) that means profit arrogation through disposing resources from the
society(Independent Engineers of Eastern Crete in TEE/ TAK, 2007). For years, we proposed our terms; we warned them about the true essence of sustainable development, which isnt just economical figures, so as you might expect we reached a deadlock (Interviewee 7). Recently, in August 2007, Garefalakis opined in his article that negotiations were led into a deadlock because of the unanswered issues about the almost
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During those 15 years of negotiation, the community members and ecologists have not been sufficiently informed, this situation raised suspicion and led inevitably to extreme non compromised actions. For instance, the mayor of Itanos requested from the investors and the foundation to have access on the works contract and until the date of the daily conference did not get any reply. When the abbot was asked about it in the conference responded: The works contract is a public paper, it is not an indulgence to be hidden or anything else. It is a public paper, all the ministries and all the relevant statutory bodies have been supplied with the works contract, whoever wants could come to the monastery and read it. But it is not a leaflet to put it up in the newsstand (The abbot of the monastery, 2006, as cited by Ecocrete.gr, 2006). Together with this latent incident could be also added what Tim Hill (the technical director of the project) said whilst we are happy to release certain information on the project, some aspects are commercially sensitive and/or confidential (Andriotis, 2005, unpublished). Thereby, the author recognises certain level of reluctance to inform widely the public. However, when considering the power/interest matrix (Marwick, 2000) (Look at Figure 2.8) then ecologists could be placed on the B/C squares of the matrix; it seems though that this reluctance is not a proper strategy from investors to approach them and increase their commitment, since at present time the informative exclusion as a manifestation of power has detrimental consequences to their interests. So, the informative lack, the lack of negotiation, shared decision making and consensus building about tourism goals and actions, indicate that public and private planners have not carried out any collaboration planning that involves direct dialogue among stakeholders in Sitia(Bramwell and Sharman, 1999). Therefore, investors (primary stakeholder: D square) should reconsider
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Chapter5: Conclusions
Chapter 5
The present paper has explored the policy planning and development in emerging tourism settings in the Sitia district. Comprehensively, this study, in the name of sustainable development, focused on the extent of collaborative and community-based planning. For that reason exploratory research has been used; the context and the structure of the previous chapter aimed to uncover the socially constructed reality of Sitias stakeholders, within the dynamic environment, and respond to why and how questions. Therein significant was the contribution of eight different interviewees, closely related with the field, as well as the obtained secondary data that provided valuable indeed background information (Bryman & Bell, 2003).
Holistically it could be said that Sitia was lacking of a carefully coordinated and integrated plan that could secure positive economic results and minimal sociocultural and environmental impacts. Officially primary stakeholders meant to adopt contemporary planning approaches but their present activities reflect to a larger or lesser extent boosterism planning approach. Evidently, contemporary planning is not an easy task to set within the district of Sitia. First of all, the governmental structures imbue centralized decision making. Plans for tourism development are set by YPEHODE, Ministry of Tourism, GNTO, and the Ministry of National Economy and Finance. Under this frame, although local authorities might be partially involved in planning, still they remain disempowered not only because of their financial dependence, but also because they operate in a highly politicized environment. As it was outlined by interviewees, there was a deficit of non existed independent management bodies that could promote, in long run, bottom up coordinated decision making and collaborative planning. Therefore, there was a room for non transparent interrelationships that grew corporatism and constraint the prospect of a trustworthy negotiation and dialogue. This situation indicates the presence of significant power differentials, where some stakeholders groups have been Page 75
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purposively excluded, from the planning process and the negotiation of the most favourable terms of development (Verbole, 2000).
Superficially there was a positive predisposition towards communitys participation; although there have been no permanent measures to secure equal distribution of tourism economic benefits within the locality, not even a subtle
perspective to involve community members in decision making process(Timothy, 1999). Overall, it was found that varied public stakeholders together with a few major private representatives, who hold significant financial, institutional and political power (Araujo and Bramwell, 1999), had participated in the planning process, but there was limited participation of community and environmental groups. Tokenism contrasts heavily with the emerging paradigm of bringing community right into the core of decision making (Costas and Buhalis, 2006). However, another finding of this research that keeps pace with the theory, has shown that community planning is not impeded solely by the public and private sector but also by the community itself, since it exhibits apathy, inability to understand and contribute to complex issues, as well as maintains reservation about the corrupted state of affairs and the certainty of decision making process (Hall, 2000).
At the moment, little if any evidence of the implementation or the success of the Cavo Sidero project is detectable, since the negotiation of the projects development terms has been stuck over 15 years. So the tourism policy planning of high quality tourism remains in the first two stages of the tourism policy process(Hall, 1994).The dubious ownership status of the land, the emergent claim for a forestal zone within the peninsula, the lack of spatial planning, the juridicial prosecution for fraud against the Abbot of the monastery, bureaucracy, the lack of infrastructures, the deliberately delayed submission of M. P. E ., the conflicting interrelationships with the mayor of Itanos, and the appeal of ecologists to the council of state portray an inefficient cross sectional system that lacks a coordinated coherent planning strategy. Where, in terms of tourism goals and actions, negotiation, shared decision making, consensus building and informative richness are missing; all these illustrate that public and private planners/ Page 76
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development interests have not carried out any collaboration planning, which involves direct dialogue among stakeholders in Sitia (Bramwell and Sharman, 1999). However, it should be noted that certain common ground priorities occur among interviewees, meaning the sustainable development and the need for infrastructural improvement. This commonality is of great importance, since common visions and goals of stakeholders could work as a seedbed for a close collaboration and consensus making in the future (Ladkin and Martinez-Bertramini, 2002).
The Greek government based on its legitimacy played an active role to the completion of the integrated resort of Cavo Sidero, through the introduction of facilitating development Laws. However, stakeholders brought forward the oxymoron nature of this intervention that aimed likely to support the catalyst for tourism development in Sitia that is Minoan PLC (Fayos and Sola, 1996, p. 409). Despite this deliberate tolerance and allegory of government towards private sector, it is states obligation to prevent usurpation of states control from international interests (Scheyvens, 2002). Alongside this investment, the presence of myriad bodies within the apparatus discourages effective coordination and planning of development strategies, where often corrupted actions take place and is a subject of political exploitation in the form of clientilism. All these, reflect the economic, political, sociocultural and constitutional peculiarity of Greece (Jamal, 2007). Hence, institutional structures ought to be reorganized and should bring at the forefront time effectiveness, trustworthiness, and commitment within the cross-sectional activities and should expand the width of responsibilities and actions of local authorities. The key objective of local governance within a sharply developed environment should be preservation of equity and harmony and foremost that of social sustainability (Selin, 1999). Ecologists, in the name of this social sustainability, through lobbying efforts with other social groups and individuals raised initially their voice and long time later made an appeal to the Council of State against on what they perceive as uncertain for the next generations. So, from their side they perceive it as duty but the oppressors, even the local church, consider them
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Chapter5: Conclusions
simplistically as individualistic, illusive, and non-democratized entities that harm the public good.
Taken together all of the above, a limited scope of collaboration has been implied, as the range of participants is not representative of all the affected bodies by tourism development, instead it would be better to talk of a private and public sector cooperation (Timothy, 1998). Thereby, the intensity of collaboration is also limited; during the 15 years of negotiation limited working groups, conferences and surveys took place that indicate low direct interaction among stakeholders and minimal information dissemination (Bramwell and Sharman, 1999). Next, whilst reviewing the appeal in the council of State, the reciprocal juridicial prosecutions, the reluctance of primary stakeholders to accept the proposed terms of development by secondary stakeholders, the absence of a trustworthy dialogue among them and the cynical annotation of peoples attitudes induce low degree of consensus making and increased conflicts.
However, as it was quoted in the literature, if tourism is to become successful and self perpetuation industry, many have advocated, it needs to be planned and managed as a renewable resource industry based on local capacities and community decision making (Murphy, 1985, as cited by Hall, 2000, p.33). Fundamentally, participants and tourism developers ought to compromise in the name of the public good and should appear keener towards a fully democratized procedure that will respect localitys needs, goals and culture and will preserve its economic prosperity. To do so, the author suggests several courses of action. Initially, recognises the determinative role of local authorities around the development domain, due to its political nuance. Local authorities, due to their spatial proximity with the community should adopt a mentoring role, in environments that experience sharp development, which will orchestrate a democratized consistent collaborative approach. Therefore, recruiting tourism related human resources, with clarified roles within the public sector is a necessity. Further, from a long term perspective local authorities should invest in concert with the private sector on building community capacity through education and raise of self awareness, in order locals to be Page 78
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capable of coping with complex and demanding issues and then undertaking projects with independence and skills (Jamal and Lagiewski, 2006, p. 2). Finally, the establishment of an independent management authority with a legitimate structure is proposed that will constantly monitor tourism activities and will exert pressures to private actors to conform to the sustainable development rules, since no single organisation or individual can exert direct control over the destinations development process (Jamal and Getz, 1995, p.193) and there is the risk of degrading inconsistencies from the private sector, due to the granted profit making parameter. In every case, the future will show, whether the Cavo Sidero project will prove to be a flagship model of sustainable tourism, as the company assert or a new wave of high class mass tourism (Andriotis, 2005).
Comprehensively, with the completion of this study, the author came up with future research proposals. As an extension of this present study and due to apparent time constraints, it would be interesting to explore further, how the community perceives community based planning and their actual predisposition towards this approach. Another issue that attracted the authors attention, during the data collection process, was discource analysis on the Ecocrete forum and in a series of e-blogs where hundreds of articles have been published by individuals about this investment, which could be perceived as an indirect reflection of communitys voice. Last but not least, beyond the physical borders of Sitia, it would be valuable to investigate thoroughly the affective relationship of partisanship with tourism planning and policy making process.
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Appendices Appendices
Appendix A
Who did attend in the daily Conference in Sitia? Tsikalakis, Mayor of Sitia; Stratakis, Prefect of Lasithi; Theofilos, Abbot of the Abbey Toplou; Geoffrey, B. Technical director of Minoan Group Plc; Karximakis, M. Deputy of Lasithi; Tsouhla, D. Representative of the Corporation Ioannou-development in eastern Crete; Loukas, Representative of hotelier Enterprises of Eastern Crete S.A.; Haidas, E. Chairman of Iktinos S.A.; Arnaoutakis, S. member of the European Parliament; Traulinos, T. Member of the administrative board of Technical Chamber of Eastern Crete /; Petrakis, N. Director of Sitia Development Organisation (O.A.S.) S.A. Dr. Andriotis, K. Member of the Open Universitys teaching staff;
93
Appendices
Dr.Nikolopoulos, F. sociologist; Paolo Croce, Representative of the European forum Sustainable Golf; Kapetanaki-Briasouli, E. Professor of University Aegean, Department of Geography; Hlikas, N. Forester-enviromentalist; Dannelis, S. Architect, Mayor of Hersonisos; Anipsitakis, A. Civil Engineer, member of Ecological group of Sitia; Tsouknakis, N. Civil Engineer-chairman of the prefectural committee of /, in Lasithi; Kampitakis, K. Agronomist, Chairman of the Geotechnical chamber of Crete; Papadakis, Member of the Pan-Cretan network Eco-Crete; Briasoulis, Professor in agronomic in the University of Athens; Tsantakis, Municipal Adviser of Itanos; Manolidakis, M. Representative of Association of Hoteliers in Lasithi; Paterakis, Chairman of the Prefectural Council of Lasithi; Vamvakopoulos, representative of the Corporation Ioannou-development in eastern Crete. Kiriakopoulos, Representative of the Civilian move towards the prosperity of the Sitia district; Georgiadis, Legal Representative Of Minoan PLC; Perakis, Mayor of Itanos; 94
Appendices
Matsinos, J. Professor of the Aegean University, Department of Environment, founding member of European Platform for Biodiversity . As obtained from the http://www.ecocrete.gr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2252&Itemi d=32, on 16th of August, 2007.
First of all, I would like to thank you for your time and effort in participating in this survey. Your contribution to the fulfillment of my dissertation is invaluable indeed. All the provided information on your behalf, after the completion of the interview, will be treated strictly as confidential.
1.
Vision and Objectives. A. Which vision do you hold for the tourism development of Greece and of Sitia in particular? B. What do you expect to achieve through tourism and especially through the emerging tourism projects and how can you secure those results?
95
Appendices
2.
predisposition. A. What is the role of the central tourism administration in the development of tourism at regional levels? How can it improve the overall competitiveness of tourism industry or a destination? B. Has the government ever encouraged any cooperative efforts between the state and regions and how? Please evaluate the existing practices. C. Apart from funding issues, what other factors act as constraint or facilitators of collaboration and partnership in national and local tourism planning? How do you think each of these constraints might best be overcome?
3.
Cooperation and partnerships in local tourism planning. A. At present time, who initiates the rural development process and who gets to participate in this process? B. Do you perceive that the range of participants in tourism planning and development is representative of all the affected bodies by tourism development? C. D. Usually, how are the terms of development negotiated? At what stages of the planning process are the relevant stakeholders involved in tourism development? E. Who decides about the development process?
96
Appendices
F. Are the local authorities, the private sector and the non profit organisations actively and collectively involved in the tourism development effort as well as in the decision making process? G. What do you perceive from the terms of community- based and cooperative tourism planning? Do you feel that these approaches are important?
4.
Democratization of tourism development and planning process. A. Is it common for the authorities and developers to conduct a priori any kinds of resident research, in emergent tourism settings? B. How would you characterise the prospect of active communitys involvement in tourism decision making process, along with legal elected bodies? C. Do the local authorities encourage community participation? Has the community received adequate information and consultative guidelines about tourism issues? H. Would you support the appointment of a legitimate convenor to initiate and facilitate community based partnership?
5.
Power differentials and consensus. A. Is there any trustworthy and open dialogue among participants about emerging policies and their consequences, where participants respect and learn from each others views and interests? B. To what extent are proposals, related to tourism issues, made from less powerful parties, taken into account by higher level of authorities?
97
1. . ; .
(projects) ;
2. .
. ; . , , ; , ; .
98
Appendices
. , ; ;
3. () . I. ( ) ? J. ; . , ; . - / ,
; . , ; ; ( , )
99
Appendices
4. . A. ; B. , ; . () ; ; . , .. , , , ;
5.
. () , ; . , ;
100
Appendices Appendix C
Written interview Chairman of O. A. S. S.A. 1. A. In terms of Greece: Greece as a destination needs to become attractive to tourists with higher income. And needs to develop forms of tourism based on the comparative advantages of culture, local products, traditional culinary, but always with respect towards the environment and our cultural heritage. In terms of Sitia: The balanced and sustainable tourist growth of province Sitia based on the alternative forms of tourism of agricultural, nature based, cultural, culinary based, health, and sport having always though in mind the carrying capacity of this area. 1. B Creating new places for work; Exploiting local products and resources; Rejuvenating the countryside ; Introducing new technologies and know-how expertise; Communicating with other cultures; Establishing and Promoting Sitia as a tourism destination.
In my opinion there is no guarantee to achieve those goals in absolute terms. Is it required a continuous effort of empowering local authorities, local bodies-institutions and citizenry.
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2. A The role of central administration is decisive, since it takes all the basic decisions, in all issues. It can improve the competitiveness with resources, motives, policies and controlling schemes that could ensure and enhance the quality of provided services and environment; and enrich always the tourist product based on the comparative advantages of a place. B Only to some extent! The reason is that they want to control everything from the centre. Exclusively, the existing practice is centralisation. What is needed even in the tourism sector is DECENTRALIZATION of actions. C Other factors that prevent it are the lack of zoning plan (nationally and regionally), the lack of cadastre, the lack of suitable institutional frame, the lack of a coherent and transparent political will and the lack of mentality, tradition and "culture of" collaboration. Factors that facilitate and impose collaboration are the intense international competition, the giantism of Tour Operators, the European Policies and the European Programs. 3. A Institutionally wise, the organisations of each periphery and [maybe on the spot] the technical chambers, the unions of hoteliers and so on. However, peripheral authoritative bodies, chambers and tourism bodies do not exist, even if some of them might exist (eg local authorities, prefecture or municipality) they do not operate satisfactory. And in this sector (the local tourism planning) the central state plays still the decisive role. Most of them (chambers, local authorities and so on) participate in the rural development process just to participate; it seems that they do not have a strong voice. B. No. The biggest "deficit" concerns the residents (and not only), who are indirectly influenced by tourism development activities. 102
Appendices
C. Usually, in an advanced stage of the process or when they are reviewing the details of those terms. D. Sometimes yes and sometimes no. Commonly they are involved, after the basic decisions have been taken place or after the already started implementation of the tourism development plan, where central authorities at that time do not bear all the costs and responsibilities. E. The tourist planning that is based on the synergy and on the community that is to say on the society of region. 4 A. No it is not usual at all. B Essential and very beneficial. C. Some of them yes, some others no. D. Yes. But the implementation of community based planning based solely on a convener seems difficult, instead it should rather adopt a consultative role. 5 A. No B Just a Little
Appendix D
The proposed terms from the representative of the Ecological group in Sitia: The foundation should set the investment of Cavo Sidero as a top priority and should reconsider its yield from the investment;
103
Appendices Cancel the construction of golf courses or at least to reduce their number; The scale of the investment should not exceed the carrying capacity of the area
socially and spatially wise;
The investment should be compatible with the requirements of the Natura 2000
network;
Take measures to avoid the creation of a luxury ghetto; Reduce the duration (40+40 years) of the contract works with Minoan Group
PLC;
Appendix E
The Inter-scientific Group that conducted the M.P.E.
The present MPE has been conducted by an inter-scientific international team, where the following study offices, consultant companies and Special scientists have been involved. -Researcher: NERCO Company - N. CHLICAS and COLLABORATORS Ltd., Holder of degree of category 27 "Environmental Studies" Class C, six (6) units potential, with registration number 581 and seated in Athens, 3, I. Damaskinou str., Tel. +30 210 6422919, Fax. +30 210 6452955
NERCO Company - Participants in the Team of Study: Nora Skokou, Forester - Enviromentalist
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Konstantinos Giannouchos, Forester - Enviromentalist Panagiotis Papadopoulos, Enviromentalist, Msc in the Environmental Technology Maria Vassilakou, Agronomist, Msc in the Applications of Geo-informatics in the natural resources and in the environment? Charilaos Dolgiras, Engineer of Mines - Metallurgist Engineer, Candidate Dr. E.M.P.
-Coordination - Assiduity of Study: Consulting Company ECHMES Ltd. Supervisor: Katerina Adam MSc, PhD, Researcher, Holder of Study Degree of category 27 "Environmental Studies", Class B
ECHMES Company Ltd. Participants in the Team of Study: Apostle Kourtis, Engineer of Environment, Candidate Dr. E.M.P Irini Christodoulou, Engineer of Mines - Metallurgist, MBA Yiannis Orfanoudakis, Engineer of Mines - Metallurgist, MSc in GIS Nikos Voudouris, Engineer of Mines - Metallurgist, Candidate Dr E.M.P
-ASPA Company S.A, Athens, Urban Planning and Coordination of Work Planning
ASPA Company S.A. - Participants in the Team of Study: Spyros Tsagaratos, Dr Urban Planning Architect 105
Appendices
Faidon Georgjadis, Land Planner Urban Planner
-Company DENCO CONSULTANTS MECHANICS Ltd., Athens, Transport and Circulatory studies, Road construction. Supervisor: Helias Vassiliadis, MSc of Architecture and Urban Planning -TEKEM Company Ltd., Networks of Infrastructure, Electromechanical study, Studies of Soil Treatment Units, Study of Desalination Station TEKEM Company Ltd. Participants in the Team of Study: Nikolaos Kavoulakos, Electrical Mechanical Engineer E.M.P Michalis Daioglou, Civil Engineer Hydraulic Engineer S. Adamopoulos, Electrical Mechanical engineer -Company GAMMA4 Ltd. Consultants Geologists Engineers, Athens,
Hydraugeological study
Company GAMMA4 Ltd. Participants in the Team of Study: M. Giannatos, Dr Geologist P. Avgeropoulos, Geologist, MSc D. Mandilaras, Geologist D. Vassios, Geologist E. Papadopoulou, Geologist -Company EUROPEAN GOLF DESIGN, Chobham Surrey, London, Architecture of Golf Courses
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-Company PGA Golf Management, Perthshire, Scotland, Architecture of Golf Courses -Company WHITELAW TURKINGTON, London, Study of Architecture of Landscape P. Kaimaki and Collaborators, Athens, Hydrologic Study P. Kaimaki, Polar Engineer Dr, Hydrologist Environmentalist, phD E. Gkouvatsou, Civil Engineer, Hydrologist Environmentalist, MSc K. Siaparinas, Geologist, MSc M. Antoniadi, Topographer Mechanic E.M.P. -Company of Studies ET&T, Athens, Study of Acoustic and Atmospheric Environment K. Vogjatzis, Acoustic and environmentalist Dr. F. Chonianaki, environmentalist P. Kassomenos, Professor of the University of Ioannina -Company DTZ Pieda, Reading, UK, Socio-economic Study -Company Ove ARUP, West Midlands, UK, Assessment of Viability of Work -Lawyer Company Dryllerakis and Collaborators, Athens, Law Consultants -Lawyer Company Dryllerakis and Collaborators - Participants in the Team of Study Dryllerakis M. Stoumpidi S. Grigoriadou -Lawyer Company Mishcon de Reya, Summit House, London, Legal Consultants Lawyer Company Mishcon de Reya - Participant in the Team of Study: O. Goodwin, Law Consultant T. Akriotis, Professor of the Aegean University, Department of Environment A. Sakoulis, Special ornithologist
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Appendices
Z. Kypriotakis, Agronomist, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Agronomics Technology (STEG) in Heraclion, Crete A.J. MacGillivray, British School of Archaeology, co-director of excavations in Palaiokastro P. Stoumpidi, Loyalward Consultant T. Straker, QC, Consultant on issues of European Rights N. Taylor, Strategy Consultant of the Cavo Sidero Project
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