The perception of small and medium sized tourism accommodation providers on the impacts of the tour operators' power in Eastern Mediterranean

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between small and medium sized tourism accommodation enterprises and European tour operators. Leisure "packaged" mass tourism and the Mediterranean basin are the main product and geographical contexts of reference. However, the potential applicability of the outcomes to other similar tourism products and areas is not excluded. Focusing primarily on SMTEs the study draws extensively from secondary research, while it also employs the outcomes of personal interviews of SMTEs' owners/managers on the Greek island of Corfu. The paper portrays the current status of the co-operation between SMTEs and TOs by illustrating the advantages and the problems faced by SMTEs' owners/managers when dealing with TOs. Finally, the study concludes by proposing actions and policies that could be incorporated in SMTEs' strategies in order to strengthen their negotiating position with large tour operating consortiums and ameliorate their evident over-reliance on tourism intermediaries. © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.