Teaching staff:
Gidarakou Isabella
Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics & Rural Development, Agricultural University of Athens

Tourism, conceptual framework and its economic importance. Trends and problems of mass tourism, challenging the mass tourism model. From mass to sustainable tourism, theoretical grounding, notion, principles and development strategies of sustainable tourism. Alternative tourism, rural tourism, agrotourism, definitions,  the changing notion of the countryside as a space of tourism and recreation, types of alternative tourism, the role of agrotourism in rural development. Agrotourist product local production and cultural heritage, typology of agrotourist businesses. Characteristics of agrotourist demand, the issue of quality in agrotourism. EU and national policy in agrotourism, institutional framework. Gender and argotourism. Implementation of agrotourism in Europe- case studies. Planning agrotourist activities, theoretical approaches, case studies. Organization/management of agrotourist businesses, financial management. Marketing strategies of agrotourist products. Case studies of sustainable tourist development in Greece.