Sustainable Tourism and Regional Development Through Innovation in the Post-COVID-19 Era: The Case of Hersonissos and Chios

Antonis Kritikos, Anastasios Magoutas () and Panoraia Poulaki
Additional contact information
Antonis Kritikos: Department of Business Administration, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 10559 Athens, Greece
Anastasios Magoutas: Department of Business Administration, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 10559 Athens, Greece
Panoraia Poulaki: Department of Economics and Management of Tourism, University of the Aegean, 82132 Chios, Greece

Tourism and Hospitality, 2025, vol. 6, issue 3, 1-25

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic revealed long-standing vulnerabilities in island tourism economies such as Crete and Chios, including seasonality, overdependence on mass tourism, and limited innovation adoption. This study investigates how sustainable tourism, regional development, and innovation interconnect in these two cases. Drawing on structured questionnaires addressed to tourism stakeholders in Hersonissos (Crete) and Chios, we apply a comparative analysis through descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings reveal a common interest in diversifying tourism offerings through digital transformation and alternative tourism models. Hersonissos demonstrates higher engagement with innovation-led strategies, while Chios reflects a cautious but growing inclination toward eco-tourism and cultural tourism initiatives. The study employs a comparative cross-sectional design based on structured questionnaires addressed to 71 tourism stakeholders in Hersonissos and Chios. Data were collected through purposive sampling that was completed in July 2023. As a practical outcome, we propose the Regional Innovation Index in Tourism—a composite tool designed to assess innovation readiness at the local level. This index enables policymakers to evaluate the strategic capacity of tourism regions and supports the formulation of long-term, place-based development strategies aligned with EU policy goals and the transition to a green economy.

Keywords: sustainable tourism development; tourism innovation in insular regions; alternative and thematic tourism; regional resilience strategies; tourism entrepreneurship (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Z3 Z30 Z31 Z32 Z33 Z38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2673-5768/6/3/134/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2673-5768/6/3/134/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jtourh:v:6:y:2025:i:3:p:134-:d:1699590

Access Statistics for this article

Tourism and Hospitality is currently edited by Mr. Philip Li

More articles in Tourism and Hospitality from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().