Planning the Sustainable Tourist Development of Zakynthos Island: A Methodological Framework

Abstract

The focus of the present paper is on the development of a methodological framework for guiding decision making in support of the sustainable tourist development of the island of Zakynthos, Greece. In this respect, potential future developments (scenarios) of the tourist sector are structured and evaluated in order to conclude with the most prevalent perspective. The scenario building process takes into account developments of both the internal environment (environmental deterioration, increasing pressure on local resources by mass tourism pattern, land use conflicts, etc.) and the external environment (strategic objectives for the development of the tourist sector at the national level, global trends in tourist demand and supply side, alternative tourism development paths, etc.). Scenarios and respective policy interventions take into account that sustainable futures of Zakynthos island have to be explored both at the: macro-level, seeking the development of an environmentally responsible, spatially balanced tourist sector; and the micro-level, seeking an environmentally responsible tourist infrastructure deployment.