| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1114330 | Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences | 2014 | 5 Pages |
The aim of this paper is to explore the depth of sustainable resources adoption from tourism entrepreneurs in the area of Evritania. We investigate the influence of the sustainable tourism development trend and fashion to the entrepreneurial activity in the tourism sector in combination of some contextual factors.The research methodology used is based on a structured questionnaire, which was completed by 75 entrepreneurs who run business in the tourism accommodation services in the area of Evritania Greece. The collected data have been elaborated through descriptive statistics in order to analyze the possible relation between the adoption of sustainable practices with entrepreneurial characteristics and other contextual factors such as local infrastructure, tourism investments, companies’ profitability, type, size, target group, years of operation etc.The main finding is that sustainable resources are not used effectively and in depth mainly due to the negative economic condition of the tourism business and the crisis in general which leads to low profitability, the attitude of entrepreneurs that tourism does no harm to the environment and thus they don’t need to be environmental sensitive, the lack of team spirit among tourism entrepreneurs and local authorities even though they believe that a good promotion strategy has been implemented.The results are under the limitation of the local sample and the type of tourism business as for example it would be interesting to see how entrepreneurs who run travel agencies behave or those who are involved with cruise boats and yachts.The practical implication of the research is that economic crisis must not consider as an alibi to the lost of business from entrepreneurs but as a point of new start in order to enhance their business competitive advantage combined with a change in national culture of how they are doing business to the direction of collectivity and team spirit.The paper brings the new approach of crisis as a chance for the development through the combination of sustainable resources exploitation in the tourism sector in Greece and especially in the rural areas.
