A strategy for a sustainable tourism development of the Greek Island of Chios

Despite several advances tocomprehend tourism impacts and its relationship with sustainable developmentchallenges, there is still a lack of worldwide examples of strategies forsustainable tourism development of destinations. Particularly in less developedEuropean regions, tourism development strategies are still poorly implemented,emphasising the need to support them towards more balanced policies and actionsthat can effectively promote a sustainable tourism destination. The Island of Chios in Greece faces severalchallenges in order to develop such a strategy. Besides being a regionparticularly affected by the financial and refugee crisis of the last years, the Island does not have a Land Use Planapproved so far or any Strategy or Plan for Tourism. As such, the main goal ofthis paper is to propose a planning framework for sustainabletourism development of the Island of Chios considering the United NationsAgenda 2030 and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. To accomplish such goal,the research involved a serious of different steps through an action-researchapproach based on a three-month internship at the local municipality. Thequalitative and quantitative methodology was developed with the input of localkey stakeholders and it enabled to identify the critical need for developing asustainable tourism strategy for the territory. Results show that Chios is adestination with potential growth and increased competitiveness andattractiveness for visitors but major steps would have to be taken for theestablishment of a participatory sustainable tourism strategic plan that couldinvolve all the stakeholders and promote a sustainable growth and a morebalanced development of the region.