Διοργάνωση διεθνούς συνεδρίου στην Καβάλα, στις 27-30 Ιουνίου
Following the success of the previous seven International Conferences on Tourism (ICOT) held in Greece, China, Cyprus, U.K., Italy and Thailand and the strong support by the international scholarly community, the 8th ICOT conference will be held at Kavala, Greece, 27-30 June 2018.
Humanity, in the 21st century, is confronted with important global issues such as climate change, peace and security, migration, health, ageing, decolonization and reconciliation that affect decision making processes, planning and management. Tourism as a global engine of change is not excluded from these concerns. In an era of globalization that pursues western economic values tourism, especially in emerging destinations, is challenged with issues of commercialization that intertwine with global concerns exercising tremendous power on aspects of host life. This can transform local cultural heritage and environment both positively and negatively. Traditional activities, places and host-guest interactions meld with a newly developing commercial mass culture that can produce fresh expressions of hosts’ and tourists’ lives. Within this situation culture, heritage and environment are subject to visitor pressures, corruption and decay. Pursuing the twin aims of creating sustainable communities and promoting robust local and regional economies within the era of globalisation, policies, planning and development initiatives are required that take these issues into account.
Bearing all of these concerns in mind, this conference aims to add to the debate regarding balanced tourism growth for emerging destinations by stimulating discussion and exchange of ideas between tourism professionals, academics, researchers, policy-makers, consultants, practitioners, government officials and postgraduate students from tourism academia and related fields.
