TOURISM IN PROTECTED AREAS: THE CASE OF THE NATIONAL MARINE PARK OF ALONISSOS-NORTHERN SPORADES IN GREECE

The tourist development of Greece began in the '50s to become one of the main sources of income, both nationally and locally, since many areas are the main source of tourism revenue. The concepts of sustainability and viability of this product and its operation, is being strongly marked recent decades in many conferences, notices, and scientific research. Greece established 30 Management Bodies to integrated management of protected areas belonging to this network. One of the main problems faced by operators in their pursuit of these objectives to be achieved is use of these areas by visitors, whose presence is particularly strong in coastal locations. Meanwhile, tourism trends in recent years have changed, resulting in more and more visitors are directed to areas that retain as much as possible intact their natural environment, which, as already mentioned, has contributed to the development of ecotourism. Comparatively, governments are pushing the parks to make more dynamic the tourism as a means of saving money to make them as independent, sustainable and self-reliant as possible. This results in the Protected Areas at risk of losing their authenticity if not properly managed the tourists from their managers. Others focus on the principles of sustainability and viability and others give concrete forms of tourism in this alternative formula, including for example ecotourism and agrotourism. The benefits anticipated from the influence on the existing tourism development, the development of better relations with local operators and those involved in the tourism sector and a holistic approach in terms of management of the protected area in the field of management. This paper investigates the profile of tourists in the National Marine Park of Alonissos, gets a swot analysis to identify the problems and benefits of the region and are proposed a number of items reference the ecotourism marketing.