Sustaining Rural Areas, Rural Tourism Enterprises and EU Development Policies: A Multi-Layer Conceptualisation of the Obstacles in Greece

Nikolaos Apostolopoulos, Panagiotis Liargovas, Stavros Stavroyiannis, Ilias Makris, Sotiris Apostolopoulos, Dimitrios Petropoulos and Eleni Anastasopoulou
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Nikolaos Apostolopoulos: Department of Economics and Business, Neapolis University Pafos, Paphos 8042, Cyprus
Stavros Stavroyiannis: Department of Accounting and Finance, University of the Peloponnese, 241 00 Kalamata, Greece
Ilias Makris: Department of Accounting and Finance, University of the Peloponnese, 241 00 Kalamata, Greece
Sotiris Apostolopoulos: Department of Accounting and Finance, University of the Peloponnese, 241 00 Kalamata, Greece
Dimitrios Petropoulos: School of Agriculture and Food, University of Peloponnese, 221 00 Tripoli, Greece
Eleni Anastasopoulou: School of Agriculture and Food, University of Peloponnese, 221 00 Tripoli, Greece

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 18, 1-19

Abstract: The main lever for the development and promotion of rural tourism in Greece has been, and continues to be, through specific EU programmes. Rural tourism in Greece began with a long delay compared to other European countries. The development philosophy was (and still is) to increase rural incomes as a complement to agricultural and livestock production, not by degrading them. This theoretical paper presents previous research studies in rural tourism and EU development programmes and it describes how European financial tools intended for rural tourism were implemented in Greece. Furthermore, it describes the challenges faced by rural people involved in the development of rural tourism in seeking European funding through a multi-layer approach on the obstacles in the EU funds absorption capacity. The analysis shows that the legislation, design of the programmes, processes from local governments, bureaucracy and malpractices create constraints in the absorption of EU funds and the results in the rural tourism development are not the expected ones. It concludes that there is a need for reforms in the national institutional framework and structures along with a different philosophy in approaching the EU funding initiatives in rural areas.

Keywords: rural tourism; European funding; rural development; rural areas; Greece (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:18:p:7687-:d:415153

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