The Aegean Islands
Sustainable Tourism Observatory
Member since
2013
Hosted by
The University of the Aegean
Monitoring area
(2 regions; 48 islands)
The Aegean Islands Observatory was the first sustainable tourism observatory of INSTO in Europe. It was created to establish permanent structures and procedures for monitoring in order to complete data gaps that are however essential for well-informed decision making.
FACTS & FIGURES
Information coming soon
MISSION
The main goal of the observatory is to collect tourism-related data on a regular basis in order to assess the impacts of tourism in the main archipelago of Greece, the Aegean Islands. Through continuous and timely measurement that goes beyond the traditional economic indicators, the objective is to better understand and manage the performance of tourism activity in the region, fostering the sustainable development of tourism based on evidence.
KEY MONITORING AREAS
Economic impacts of tourism, including the state of the labor market
Seasonality
Local satisfaction with tourism
Visitor satisfaction
Production patterns, including environmental information
DID YOU KNOW…
The Aegean Islands are composed of two sub-regions. From the 48 islands that belong to the entire monitoring area, only 42 are inhabited. Although there are a lot of similarities when looking at the region from a sub-national level, there are nevertheless many disparities among each individual island, with each of them having very distinct characteristics. While this poses specific challenges in terms of data monitoring, the continuous tourism development in the region, and the importance of the sector for the country in general, make regular measurement beyond the economic sphere even more so important.
