Aspects of sustainability in the destination branding process: a bottom-up approach

The concept of sustainability is based on the premise that the inhabitants of a destination should be involved in the way that destination is managed and promoted. At the same time, the literature of place branding emphasizes the important role of local stakeholders in the creation of a true and reliable place brand. In fact, the process of developing a destination brand begins with the aim of shaping the identity of a destination; what the destination stands for. The sustainable dimensions of the destination branding process are explored, while focus groups and structured questionnaires are used to evaluate the usefulness of projection techniques in the process of building a brand identity. It seems that the use of the personification technique could work as an effective destination positioning exercise and as an alternative proposal to the outdated clichés used in tourism promotion

Strategic Planning for Local Tourism Destinations: An Analysis of Tourism

This paper reports on a study of the planning practices of local tourism destinations. The tourism plans of 30 local tourism destinations in Queensland, Australia were analyzed to determine the extent to which sustainability principles, namely strategic planning and stakeholder participation, were integrated into the planning process. Utilizing a tourism planning process evaluation instrument developed by Simpson (2001), it was found that local tourism destinations are not integrating sustainability principles in their planning processes

The Greek-Orthodox version of the Brief Religious Coping (B-RCOPE) instrument: psychometric properties in three samples and associations with mental disorders, suicidality, illness perceptions, and quality of life

Background: The B-RCOPE is a brief measure assessing religious coping. We aimed to assess the psychometric properties of its Greek version in people with and without long-term conditions (LTCs). Associations between religious coping and mental illness, suicidality, illness perceptions, and quality of life were also investigated. Methods: The B-RCOPE was administered to 351 patients with diabetes, chronic pulmonary obstructive disease (COPD), and rheumatic diseases attending either the emergency department (N = 74) or specialty clinics (N = 302) and 127 people without LTCs. Diagnosis of mental disorders was established by the MINI. Associations with depressive symptom severity (PHQ-9), suicidal risk (RASS), illness perceptions (B-IPQ), and health-related quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF) were also investigated. Results: The Greek version of B-RCOPE showed a coherent two-dimensional factor structure with remarkable stability across the three samples corresponding to the positive (PRC) and negative (NRC) religious coping dimensions. Cronbach’s alphas were 0.91–0.96 and 0.77–0.92 for the PRC and NRC dimensions, respectively. Furthermore, NRC was associated with poorer mental health, greater depressive symptom severity and suicidality, and impaired HRQoL. In patients with LTCs, PRC correlated with lower perceived illness timeline, while NRC was associated with greater perceived illness consequences, lower perceived treatment control, greater illness concern, and lower illness comprehensibility. Conclusions: These findings indicate that the Greek-Orthodox B-RCOPE version may reliably assess religious coping. In addition, negative religious coping (i.e., religious struggle) is associated with adverse illness perceptions, and thus may detrimentally impact adaptation to medical illness. These findings deserve replication in prospective studies

Sustainable tourism and carrying capacity: A new context

[No abstract available

Governance Challenges in the Mediterranean

The Mediterranean benefits from a long tradition in environmental cooperation under the Barcelona Convention and its operational mechanism The Mediterranean Action Plan of UNEP. Such cooperation focused at an early stage on the protection of the marine and coastal environment with a major emphasis on regulation through the Convention and its seven Protocols. In this context ICZM has acquired a special attention through a recent innovative Protocol. However, the environmental policy agenda has been broadened and moved higher up the governance levels giving priority for example to global issues such as climate change and to supra-national (i.e. EU) or international level commitments (i.e. the Kyoto protocol). In addition sustainable development perspectives have brought environmental integration issues in sectoral/development policies. As a consequence national, regional and local authorities are faced with an increasingly complex structure of policies, programmes, activities, initiatives and stakeholders (World Bank, GEF, UfM, etc.). Governance improvement has been central to these concerns in the Mediterranean particularly in terms of key themes of interest: pollution, biodiversity and coastal zone managemen

Cultural heritage, local resources and sustainable tourism

Tourism is a complex socio-economic phenomenon based on the growing needs of modern societies for recreation and leisure. It has become a major economic activity worldwide and a priority field in policy making at local, regional, national, supranational and international level. The growth of tourism, has brought forward to the attention of policy making its potential, but also its social, economic and environmental impacts. Cultural heritage is at the basis of attracting tourists in Europe as well as in several places around the world. The impacts of tourism have led modern societies to reconsider their development paths and options. Sustainable development of tourism is becoming a priority. In the search for sustainable tourism strategies managing cultural heritage and local resources has become a central concern. Relevant policy issues are discussed. Copyright © 2008 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd

Integrated coastal management and river basin management

There are important functional relationships between river basins and coastal areas and one may influence the other. The two systems are linked through natural processes (water flow, sediment transport, energy) and human activities (urban development, rural activities, technical infrastructures, waste and pollution). Coastal areas are extremely valuable as they concentrate a rich diversity of natural habitat areas and a large variety of natural resources. River basins are also important areas from the point of view of natural ecosystems particularly on the basis of the presence of water and its support for the flora and fauna in the area. Coastal areas and river basin, at the same time provide opportunities for development of a wide range of human activities. The coastal zone is an essential part of a river basin. Both, river basin and coastal problems require a multi-sectoral approach. In some cases the two systems require a common framework of management. The goals, general objectives and principles of integrated river basin and coastal zone management are discussed. © 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers

Tourism, Technological Change and Regional Development in Islands

Technological innovation in transport, telecommunications and business organization have, to a great extent, affected not only tourism as a sector but also small tourist destinations, such as small islands, offering new prospects for local and regional development. © Maria Giaoutzi and Peter Nijkamp 2006. All rights reserved