Tourism is a major activity in the Greek islands. Its development during recent decades has stopped the economic and demographic decline of the area. The paper develops a framework for the appraisal of tourism's sustainability in the Greek islands, and it is concluded that the conventional tourist model, based on sun, sea and sand (3S) has failed to promote sustainability due to the limited economic benefits for host communities and growing environmental pressures. The latest trend in Greece and elsewhere is a shift from mass tourism to more environmentally friendly and sustainable forms of tourism. Policies to change tourism patterns in the Greek islands will need to take into consideration their unique characteristics, their existing realities, and to be based on the exploitation of the local natural and cultural resources in order to develop new forms of tourism. The purpose of this paper is to identify types of new forms of tourism that are being developed in the Aegean Islands, and to evaluate their impact. Various practical examples are presented, together with the difficulties involved in their implementation. The initiatives are in fact so recent that it is difficult to assess their tangible results.

The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is the most significant of the Structural Funds in terms of budget and range of thematic priorities. For the purposes of this paper, we argue that three different levels in multi-level governance emerge in their planning and management: the higher (European and national) level planning; the lower level (beneficiaries); and the intermediate level of (national and regional) planning and management. We discuss the views and practices of intermediate managers and beneficiaries to gain insights on the effectiveness of ERDF interventions on the island of Lesvos (Voreio Aigaio region, Greece), with interviews with a number of key stakeholders and beneficiaries. The findings suggest differences and contrasting views on the role of ERDF funding among the different levels. Local politics also affect the effectiveness by influencing the administration, planning and management of ERDF implementation.

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Tourism is a major industry that can lead to economic gains as well as to degraded environment and social infrastructure. Tourism has the potential to destroy the available common environmental resources through overuse and poor management practices, as limited information disclosure and poor monitoring of actions encourage the perpetuation and extension of environmental problems. Based on the adaptive resource management paradigm for addressing problems related to the use of the commons, this paper suggests a methodology for the development of a management tool that can provide island hotels with a continuous fl ow of timely, relevant, accurate and objective information on the environmental impact of critical corporate activities. The tool, named the destination environmental scorecard (DES), draws on activity-based management concepts and can help local hotel SMEs measure and compare their performance against certain standards and thus conduct operations in a responsible and measurable way to the benefi t of both business fi nancial performance and regional sustainability. The paper presents the DES operational characteristics and the potential benefi ts from its implementation.

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