Title: Alternative forms of sustainable development: the case of thermal tourism

Authors: Georgakopoulou Stavroula; Delitheou Vasiliki

Addresses: Department of Economic and Regional Development, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens 17671, Greece ' Department of Economic and Regional Development, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens 17671, Greece

Abstract: Thermal tourism is a special form of providing tourist services at special facilities that use recognised thermal natural resources. Thermal tourism blooms in Europe with pioneer country Germany. There are 1,400 developed bathing sites in Europe, visited by millions of patients from all over the world. This industry employs about 750,000 people and has an annual turnover of approximately 45 billion euros. In Greece, thermal tourism is an important part of the country's cultural heritage and not only because Greece is one of the richest countries in natural sources with excellent quality water. Despite the fact that Greece is the first country in Europe in the quality and uniqueness of natural thermal resources, its thermal tourism is declining. Furthermore, in this article, efforts will be made to identify the causes that contribute to the reduction of thermal tourism, as well as to draw some conclusions with a view to improving and sustaining the thermal tourism.

Keywords: alternative tourism; thermal tourism; sustainable development.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESD.2020.110637

International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development, 2020 Vol.19 No.4, pp.367 - 377

Received: 15 Jan 2019
Accepted: 22 May 2019
Published online: 27 Oct 2020 *

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