Environmental Tourism – Alternative Ways

Recent years have seen an unprecedented tourist advancement and a huge increase in international transport rates which resulted in the environmental decay of many regions of Europe.

Alternative forms of tourism need to be launched to help protect the environment as well as support countries whose financial and social survival is at stake. By virtue of the multitude of strategies wielded over the past two decades and their resulting inefficiency to administer the land and protect the environment, a shift to sustainability becomes imperative. Educating and therefore, developing active citizens in terms of sustainable tourism yields necessary for the maintenance and long term protection of natural, cultural and social resources.

Our involvement in such a Comenius-Regio project reflects an intention to familiarize both countries with alternative sources of tourism. Furthermore, an exchange of ideas, information and suggestions will be performed along with the initiation of new perceptions in teacher education and student awareness. Approaching cultural diversity in terms of environmental education constitutes an ultimate goal regarding the development of sustainability. Furthermore, an attempt to elaborate and study different educational systems will be carried out. We also aim to record details of alternative forms of tourism of our regions related to environment ( agricultural , cultural , outdoorsy, etc) and consequently recommend measures for their protection. Such a research will improve the teaching materials and the framework of programmes applied in our region and the results will be disseminated to regions all over the country.