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Indulging in the ‘Mediterranean Maritime World’ – Diving Tourism in Insular Territories

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Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2021 (ICCSA 2021)

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Abstract

Island regions in the Mediterranean have so far been highly attractive tourism destinations due to their mild climate, relaxing atmosphere and the warm Mediterranean spirit, culture and hospitality. However, the repercussions of the prevailing polarized and mass tourism model are already noticeable in their bodies. These, coupled with the predicted impacts of climate change (CC), can jeopardize islands’ socio-economic and environmental stability. In seeking to achieve sustainable and resilient developmental pathways, new more qualitative tourism options need to be pursued, bridging valuable competencies of Mediterranean islands, i.e. their natural/cultural wealth, both inland and underwater, with demanding, authentic and experience-based tourism offers. Diving tourism represents a challenging, though yet not fully exploited, option in this respect and lies at the heart of this work. More specifically, potential for diving tourism in Mediterranean islands is explored by: sketching the policy context of the very essence of this tourism form, i.e. protection of natural and cultural resources; displaying current successful examples in the Mediterranean and the Greek context; and featuring marine spatial and other planning and policy concerns for releasing this islands’ development potential and grasping opportunities of a rapidly escalating niche market in a sustainable and resilient way.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and Regional Planning, School of Rural, Surveying and Geoinformatics Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Dionisia Koutsi & Anastasia Stratigea

Authors
  1. Dionisia Koutsi
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  2. Anastasia Stratigea
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Correspondence to Dionisia Koutsi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy

    Osvaldo Gervasi

  2. University of Basilicata, Potenza, Potenza, Italy

    Beniamino Murgante

  3. Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria

    Sanjay Misra

  4. University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

    Chiara Garau

  5. University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

    Ivan Blečić

  6. Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia

    David Taniar

  7. Kyushu Sangyo University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Bernady O. Apduhan

  8. University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

    Ana Maria A. C. Rocha

  9. Polytechnic University of Bari, Bari, Italy

    Eufemia Tarantino

  10. Polytechnic University of Bari, Bari, Italy

    Carmelo Maria Torre

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Koutsi, D., Stratigea, A. (2021). Indulging in the ‘Mediterranean Maritime World’ – Diving Tourism in Insular Territories. In: Gervasi, O., et al. Computational Science and Its Applications – ICCSA 2021. ICCSA 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12958. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87016-4_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87016-4_5

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