Exploring the Socio-Cultural Theme of Tourism in Greece

This study explores the socio-cultural theme of tourism in Greece, highlighting the dimensions of tourism within the specific cultural setting and applying social and tourism theories. It discusses the attractions, types of tourism, Greek culture, social themes, and tourism theories and models.

Critically explore a socio-cultural theme or theory relating to the consumption of tourism and apply it to a specific destination population or
touristINTRODUCTION
This study is going to highlight on exploring the socio cultural theme of the Greece associated with the destination. This study also helps in evaluating the dimensions of the tourism within the specific cultural setting.
This study will also determine the appropriate application of the social and tourism theory. This way it helps in effectively carrying out various set of operations.
Overview of Greece
Greece is considered to be one of the most attractive place in the world which captures attention of the tourist from across the globe. Ancient Greece tends to belong to the period of Greek history. The key attractions of
the Greece are Athens, Santorini, Crete, Mykonos, Meteora, Oia, Corfu, Paros, Naxos, Milos, Rhodes, Hydra, etc. the statistics tend to show that, the number of tourist visiting Greece has been increasing year after year. There are
large number of people from different countries who has been visiting Greece every year. Greece tourism industry tends to highly contribute around 18% of GDP. The Greek Statistical Authority, in the year 2019 has stated that,
there seems to be an increase in the tourism level by 18991 in the year 2019. Approximately 33 million of the people has visited Greece in the year 2018. This in turn has made Greece as one of the most considerate country in the
Europe and across the globe. Greece is considered to be a wealthy country.
Type of tourism
There are various type of tourism which includes recreational tourism, health tourism, environmental tourism, ethnic tourism, adventure tourism, religious tourism and
historical tourism. Large number of tourists tend to visit Greece for recreational activities and experience of the ethnic culture and also to carry out adventure tourism. The key
recreational and adventure in Greece mainly comprise of Hiking, bird watching within Northern Greece, Sea Kayaking, Rock climbing, Wind surfing, Mountaineering, Skiing, etc.
Chios Island is the most attractive place for diving in the Greece.
Greece in turn has also become one of the destination for ecotourism. It mainly constitutes of canoeing, climbing, hiking and caving. The Greece government tends to
focus on bringing more ecosystem in order to save the ecosystem and environment of the Greece. This in turn helps in maintaining a clean sets of environment both by locals and
tourist. Ecotourism tends to travel to the places such as fauna, flora and cultural heritage. Ecotourism is considered to offer various tourists which helps in greatly appreciating the
natural habitats. One of the most prominent part associated with the eco- tourism leads to high degree of promotion related with the energy efficiency, recycling and energy
efficiency. Ecotourism is also considered to be as the sustainable tourism which helps in contributing to the positive and greener environment. Greece tends to focus on building
environmental awareness and also focus on respecting the local culture.
Culture of Greece
The Greece culture has evolved over the period. It is also considered to be as the provenance of the Western culture. Greek culture is considered to be very vibrant and rich. Greek people are very proud of their culture and
tends to speak within their native language with high degree of compassion. They are highly united by their traditions, music, food, language, wine, religion, etc. All these in turn tends to form the Greece cultural identity and is also
considered to be as the backdrop if Greek culture. The language is considered to be one of the most prominent part of the Greece culture because Greek culture in turn is largely influenced by the Roman empire and there are various
sets of civilizations who in turn tends to continue in order to highly influence the modern culture in today's time. The Athenian society in turn was divided into 4 sets of social classes which mainly comprise of the upper class, middle
class, lower class and slave class. Furthermore, upper class people consist of those who were born to the Athenian parents. They in turn were considered to be as the citizen of Athens. Greece tends to have more than 3% of the
international tourist arrivals. In the year 2018, the travel and tourism sector of the Greece has grown up at the rate of approximately 6.9%. There in turn tends to benefit the economy at a greater scale. The economy of the country also
rose up by 2.0%. Tourism sector in turn consists of 20.6% of the Greece GDP when compared with the world average of around 10.4%. This in tour has resulted in high degree of employability within this tourism sector. One out of the
five job is created in Tourism sector within Greece. The key cultural attraction of the Greece mainly constitute of Ecotourism, Museums and archaeological cities.
Social theme of Greece
Greek people tends to focus on collectivism rather than on the individual event. Ancient Greek society is unified with certain set of traditions and also the Greek architecture is well designed in order to facilitate more tourist in the
country.
Tourism is considered to be one of the most important economic industry related with the Greece. It is considered to be as the land of religious, rich economies, etc. in turn helps in attainment of better operational goals and
higher tourism efficiency. Tourists are interested within the cultural in order to carry out functions with utmost accuracy and efficiency. Tourist behaviour is considered to be one of the effective measure in order abandon, uptake and
purchase the various set of tourist services. Travel behaviour in turn is considered to be one of the effective measure which helps in ascertaining the attitude and belief of the patients.
Consumer marketing tends to focus on analysing the behaviour of the tourists which is useful in interpreting the decision making of the tourists towards specific set of destination. The expectations and needs of the customers
are assessed which helps in better decision making. Greece in turn is considered to be one of the prime destination of the Europe. The best time to visit Greece and various Greek island is between late April till early November. One
should not visit Greece in the month of July and August because they are considered to be one of the hottest month in the Greece. Winter tourism in turn is considered to be of the great deal of prevalence for the company because it
helps tourists to have a great deal of experience to the customers.
Macedonia is the country in South Eastern Europe where approximately around 3023059 number of tourists has visited Greece as per the records of 2015. Tourists are attracted by the rich history of Greece. This way it helps
in attracting various tourists from across the globe. Greece has been dominated by the key efforts in order to regenerate high degree of ski centres and winter sports resorts. Individuals tend to travel to Greece in order to experience an
effective level of luxury set of experience by experiencing ravish and luxury experience. Greece is not too expensive place to explore by the tourist. It tends to offer pocket friendly budget to the people who wants to experience the
culture, history and beauty of Greece. Tourists tends to like the cliffs tumbling within the sparkling blue water, pebble beaches, ancient archaeological sites, sand beaches, balmy Mediterranean climate, etc. influence the behaviour of
the customers to visit Greece. After, North Macedonia, Germany is on the second tank with number constitutes of 2810350 in order to visit Greece. United kingdom tends to come on the third rank with number of people visiting
Greece constitutes of 2397169 in the year 2015.
Greece is considered to be as the picturesque country because it helps in standing amidst towards the specific towering mountains. Greece is considered to be one of the popular destination for the holiday in Europe. They are highly
acknowledged by the civilization of the Europe. Hence, Greece always continue to fascinate tourists with high degree of customer experience.
CONCLUSION
From the conducted study, it has been summarized that, Greece is
considered to be one of the most attractive place in the world which captures
attention of the tourist from across the globe. Greek culture is considered to be
very vibrant and rich. The language is considered to be one of the most prominent
part of the Greece culture. Tourism is considered to be one of the most important
economic industry related with the Greece. Macedonia is the country in South
Eastern Europe where approximately around 3023059 number of tourists has
visited Greece as per the records of 2015. Butler model and Cohen's theory of
tourism are effective to analyse the behaviour of the Tourists in Greece.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Agaliotou, C., Martha, L. and Vrasida, M., 2019. Spatial Planning Principles as an Active Agent: Making Greece a Global Market for Sensitized Tourism. In Strategic Innovative Marketing and Tourism (pp. 665-672). Springer, Cham.
Alebaki, M. and Koutsouris, A., 2019. Wine tourism destinations across the Life-Cycle: A comparison of Northern Greece, Peloponnese and Crete. In Wine Tourism Destination Management and Marketing (pp. 463-482). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Belias, D., Mantas, C. and Tsiotas, D., 2019. The Impact of Corporate Culture in the Performance of the Front Desk Employees—The Case of Five Star Hotels in Greece. In Smart Tourism as a Driver for Culture and Sustainability(pp. 563-576). Springer, Cham.
Georgopoulou, E and et.al., 2019. Climatic preferences for beach tourism: an empirical study on Greek islands. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 137(1-2), pp.667-691.
Gkarane, S. and Vassiliadis, C., 2019. Inviting overseas entrepreneurs to greece for B2B tourism marketing purposes: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of a SME. Piccola Impresa/Small Business, (2).
Kasimati, E. and Ioakeimidis, P., 2019. Accessible tourism in Greece: What is the current status?. Journal of Ekonomi, 1(1), pp.12-21.
Lampada, D and et.al., 2019. Tracing Roots and Routes of Religious Tourism in Rural Areas of Greece: The Case of the “Footsteps of St. Paul”. In Handbook of Research on Socio-Economic Impacts of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage (pp. 19-37). IGI Global.
Loukas, A., 2019. Cruising-a form of alternative tourism in Greece.
Menegaki, A.N. and Agiomirgianakis, G.M., 2019. Risk dimensions of a vertical Chinese expansion in the Greek tourism sector: the Chinese side. International Journal of Decision Sciences, Risk and Management, 8(3), pp.149-171.
Nastos, P.T. and Matzarakis, A., 2019. Present and Future Climate—Tourism Conditions in Milos Island, Greece. Atmosphere, 10(3), p.145.
Tampakis, S and et.al., 2019. The Growth of Mountain Tourism in a Traditional Forest Area of Greece. Forests, 10(11), p.1022.
Online
Data Shows More Tourists Came to Greece in 2019 But Stayed for Fewer Days. 2019. [ONLINE]. Available through:<https://greece.greekreporter.com/2019/12/20/data-shows-more-tourists-came-to-greece-in-2019-but-stayed-for-fewer-days/>
Tourism theory and model
Butler model is considered to be one of the most effective model which in turn is very useful in assessing and predicting the way tourist resorts develop and grow. It is also an effective model which is useful in predicting
how the behaviour of the tourist change within the changing demand in the tourist industry. This model is very useful to highly reflecting on how was the experience of the specific tourist. This way it helps in determining the future
growth and development within the tourism industry.
Cohen's theory of tourism is effectively classified into four set of categories which mainly includes:
 Organised mass tourists: This factor is highly related with the environmental bubble. They tend to accommodate with the Western style.
 Individual mass explorer: They tend to provide institutional facilities within the tourism system. They in turn tends to like to travel individually.
 Explorer: They are the type of tourists who wants to explore new set of places along with the comfort in order to gain ravishing experience. They tend to highly rely on the various modern amenities.
 Drifter: they are the kind of tourists who in turn tends to seek high degree of innovation and newness within any set circumstances. Such tourists tend to work completely within the local society and tends to stay at a tourist
place for a long duration of time.
 Hence, organised mass tourists and individual mass explorer are considered to be as the institutional tourists. But on the contrary, explorer and drifter are considered to be as the non- institutional tourists.
 Hence, application of theses tourism theories in turn is very useful in determining the most preferred choose of the customer of different age group. It also helps in predicting the amount of people who fits in the
type of tourism. This way it leads to higher sustainable growth and also results in high degree of tourism and in turn also helps in attaining attraction of the maximum number of people to the Greece by offering exceptional
range of packages at a very reasonable price. The key factors that satisfy tourists mainly includes relaxation, adventure, rest, social interaction, exploration, self evaluation, etc. This way it helps in providing best services to
the people according to their preference. The key motivator of the tourist is the inner state of the mind of the person. This in turn is considered to be as one of the most prominent measure which h is very useful in
influencing the psychological behaviour of the Tourist. The consumption of tourism in Greece is much higher in the year 2019. The number of arrivals has raised up by 18991 i.e., up to 19324078 in the year 2019 as
compared to the 19305087 in the year 2018. the average number of nights spent by the tourist in turn largely accounts to 4.2 nights on an average.
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