Agrotourism: A Lever for Rural Development Based on the Cultural Reserve of Greece

Sustaining Rural Areas, Rural Tourism Enterprises and EU Development Policies: A Multi-Layer Conceptualisation of the Obstacles in Greece

“…In Greece, rural tourism as an entrepreneurial activity began its growth with a delay of at least twenty years compared to other European countries and considered as a supplement to the rural income of rural residents [1]. Rural tourism began to develop in the late 1980s; until then the tourism product was promoted both by the state and by international tourist offices, mainly in coastal areas and islands.…”

“…In the international literature, there is a wide range of studies on rural tourism in Greece: on the intentions of visitors to rural tourism units [3], on the attitudes of visitors to the rural tourism units [4], an examination of how the internet is used by rural tourism enterprises [5], on the influence of trademarks on rural tourism enterprises [6], on the impact of rural tourism on local development [7] and how the tourism-agriculture combination can support rural households [8]. There are also studies on female rural tourism in Greece [9][10][11][12][13][14], the role of rural tourism in local development [1,15,16] and the quality norms of services and experience provided by rural tourism enterprises in relation to visitor satisfaction [17]. However, most of the research concerning the case of Greece deal with the emblematic LEADER Initiative and the amount contributed to local development via European financial tools that support and promote rural tourism enterprises [14,[18][19][20][21][22][23].…”