Journal of Sustainable Tourism
Editors: Bill Bramwell (Sheffield Hallam University) and Bernard Lane (Visiting Research Fellow, Sheffield Hallam University)
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Volume: 11 Number: 2 Page: 97–115
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Crete: Endowed by Nature, Privileged by Geography, Threatened by Tourism?
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Helen Briassoulis
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Crete, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean and the largest Greek island, is a highly heterogeneous region which has experienced rapid tourism development since the mid- to late 1960s when the
growth in international tourism and broader socioeconomic changes disturbed past equilibrium patterns. Tourism has become a leading economic sector but has also caused several unwanted economic, environmental
and sociocultural impacts and, currently, it appears to threaten the island's sustainability. The principal goal of official development plans is the achievement of sustainable development and the promotion
of tourism in the island. To make realistic suggestions for the transition to sustainability it is essential, however, to identify the two-way relationship between tourism and the context within which it
develops. The paper offers a broad-brush, integrated analysis of tourism and local development in Crete in three time periods since the late 1960s. It presents its impacts, evaluates them with a consistent
set of sustainability criteria and probes into the essential requirements for securing the sustainability of development of the island and of its tourist sector. It concludes with a brief account of theoretical
issues related to tourism development in heterogeneous destinations.
© Multilingual Matters 2003
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