Page 5 - PEAKED_Preliminary Research_EN

Socioeconomic Factors:

- Main economic activities (e.g., tourism, agriculture).
- Demographic trends.
- Challenges faced by local communities.

Tourism is considered as a very important sector for the Greek economy, but also of many economies all over
the world. A critical point of the creation of a tourist economy which will offer value to both the host country
and tourists is sustainability (Schorner, 2011). Tourism in mountainous areas accounts for a considerable part
of the world’s tourism industry, as a result of which the current international debate on sustainable
development attaches great importance to mountains. Furthermore, 2002 was designated by the United
Nations as both “International Year of Ecotourism” and “International Year of Mountains”, which aroused
awareness concerning mountain ecosystems and the link between development in the mountainous areas
and environment-friendly tourism (Vlami et al, 2012). Greece is the most mountainous country in the
Mediterranean with 78% (Nordregio, 2004: 29) of its surface covered by mountainous areas. According to
Nezis (2010), Greece has 413 mountains above 1,000 m; notably, 53 of them are over 2,000 m, while 138 are
between 2,000 and 1,500 m. the respective touristic offerings are unstructured and fragmented. Moreover,
these areas are vastly underrepresented if not completely missing in almost all national marketing
campaigns, especially the ones targeting foreign tourists (Dologlou & Kotsios, 2015). The main hindrance
to development of the mountain areas in Greece is the low population, mainly in terms of active
population, due to the existence of mountainous and infertile land, geographic isolation and insufficiency of
productive resources (Filippou et al, 2009). The population in the mountain areas in Greece is shrinking and
represents only 7.6% of the total population, while in 1950 the population in mountain areas accounted
14.5%. Mountain Olympus is not only the highest peak of Greece which attracts more than 200.000 climbers
each year, but also it is a global brand. At this point, it is essential to mention that Mount Olympus is regarded
as destination brand which is highly associated with alpinism. The main feature of mountain tourism is
that it is developed in mountain areas, and this makes the mountains appropriate for tourism to be
developed. Definitions of what characterizes mountains are unclear. The Mount Olympus comprises one of
the most popular destinations for mountain tourism within the Greek territory, and has an extensive network
of trails, its total length exceeding 160 km for Hiking and Trekking. About 90 routes on the mountain, 68 of
which exist on the upper mountain (Mytikas, Skolio, Stefani, Kalaia and Stauraities) whereas the remaining
22 have been established on the rock face of Zilnia. Today, Mount Olympus is host to 5 trail runs of variable
distance (from 22 to 100 km) and a few thousand runners enjoy the trails either racing or training for future
projects. The list of the trail runs taking place on Mount Olympus includes the classic Mount Olympus
marathon. In a very limited degree offers the opportunity for mountain biking. The offered Routes, start at
870m and finished in max but also gain height at 1470m. According to a survey conducted by Kostopoulou
& Kyritsis (2003) on local people's perception of sustainable tourism development in the Mount
Olympus, the visitors are attracted in the Mount Olympus due the fact the this is the highest mountain
in Greece. Concerning the infrastructure 51.5% of the respondents mentioned that this were satisfactory,
but at the same time 42% of the respondents suggested the need for additional infrastructure and 45%
suggested the improvement of the existing infrastructure an especially for alpine centers, refuges, ski
centers, lifts and also footpaths. As far as the volume of the visitors is concerned, 52.4% consider it not
satisfactory and 74.9% were in favor of the further increase of the tourism volume. Finally regarding the
impact of tourism on the local economy, a significant percentage (46.7%) responded the economic status

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect
those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA
can be held responsible for them.