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The tourism industry in Greece has come a long way since its beginning as a distinct economic activity to reach the recent impressive results. It is a sector that has grown remarkably and became a major source of growth for the Greek economy. As such this chapter aims to discuss the importance and the potential of the sector, the unique characteristics of the Greek tourism industry and the future challenges ahead. Tables and suitable graphics are provided to visually enhance and inform the discussion. A wide range of articles, journals, books, and electronic sources has been reviewed to present as accurately and up to date information as possible. This chapter can therefore prove useful for academics and non-academics to use it as a reference point for the tourism sector in Greece.

Destination management organizations perform a very important role regarding the management of tourism destinations. Destination management systems are a key technological infrastructure for these organizations. However, in the literature, it is not clear what are the factors that promote the implementation of these systems, neither what are the factors that contribute to their success. This study aims to propose and test two research models to overcome these research gaps.

The first model refers to the determinants of the implementation of destination management systems, and the second model refers to the determinants of the success of those systems. The models are tested with data collected through a questionnaire survey from destination management organizations of five European countries, which are among the leaders in international tourism receipts.

Concerning the factors that promote the implementation of destination management systems, this study reveals the importance of the diversity of partnerships that the private sector establishes in the destination, of advantages resulting from governance and of partners' involvement in the functions of destination management organizations. Concerning the factors that promote the success of these systems, this study highlights the importance of a phased implementation, the fact that a high number of functionalities in the system prevents success and the importance of having a revenue model that can support financial and operating costs.

The study provides important theoretical and practical contributions to the successful implementation of destination management systems by destination management organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the attitudes of tourists toward digital marketing applications related to peer-to-peer short-term rental services within the sharing economy in the tourism sector. It aims to identify the factors that make Greek tourists to use these applications and to classify them into groups according to their attitudes toward these websites and to profile each group of tourists according to their personal and demographic characteristics and their preferences regarding their holidays/travel.

A primary survey was conducted in April 2018 for a random selected sample of Greek tourists. Principal component analysis was conducted to identify the main factors that affect tourists in using digital marketing application related to peer-to-peer short-term rental services within the sharing economy in the tourism sector. Cluster analysis was performed to classify tourists into groups according to their attitudes toward the use of these websites while discriminant analysis was conducted to check cluster predictability. Non-parametric tests, including the chi-square test, were performed to profile each strategic group according to their demographic characteristics and their preferences regarding their holidays/travel.

The study classified tourists into three groups, i.e. pioneers, convenience seekers and conscious, according to their attitudes toward the use of such applications.

The choice for the Greek context of the research is justified by the fact that Greece has suffered from recession in the last decade, but it is also a tourism-friendly country. The empirical results of this pioneer study should trigger further investigation. Although tourists’ behavior towards the adoption of digital marketing application related to peer-to-peer rental services within the sharing economy in the tourism sector might be culturally specific and the results are mainly applicable in the Greek market, they could be generalized in other countries with similar characteristics in both Greece and other parts with similar characteristics.

Tourists are extremely important both for developers and policy makers in tourism industry. For developers such information is important because the expectation of viable markets will motivate investments. For policy makers, this type of information will help them to respond more adequately through regulation tools and programs. From a practical perspective, the tourism operators may benefit from focusing on their differentiating features and aligning their marketing communication with their tourists’ aspirations by developing, optimizing and customizing their websites according to the needs of the customers and the extension of touristic activities to other sectors of tourism industry.

Visitors who choose Airbnb accommodations spend more days travelling; consequently, the market size of the tourism industry expands from the increase in the number of visitors.

The originality of the paper derives from the understanding of the tourists’ behavior toward the adoption of digital marketing applications related to peer-to-peer rental services within the sharing economy in the tourism sector. More specifically, it identifies the factors that make Greek tourists to use those applications, classifies them into groups according to their attitudes towards those websites and profiles each group of tourists according to their personal and demographic characteristics and their preferences regarding their holidays/travel.

COVID-19 pandemic crisis has led the scientific community in continuous efforts to estimate its impact on tourism. UNWTO predictions indicated a decline in international tourist arrivals and the respective loss in revenues generated by tourist activity for the first year of the pandemic. Undoubtedly, such an impact may not be the same for every country, especially on a domestic level. In fact, the recovery process upon COVID-19 suggests domestic tourism as the driving force. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the tourist behavioral intentions after the first outbreak of COVID-19 with evidence from the Greek market.

A primary survey with questionnaires distributed via online channels (email and social media) has been undertaken to focus on the travelers’ preferences when it comes to the main parts that compose the holiday travel (destination, transport mode, accommodation type). Additionally, there were questions regard to their perceptions on the international norms of health protection against the virus.

The results of the survey illustrate some prima facie evidence of tourist behavioral intentions of Greeks, upon a statistical analysis, which indicates preference in domestic tourism and personalized services, issues related with travel costs and health safety awareness, toward tourism recovery process and customers’ reengagement and trust to the tourism businesses and destinations.

As Greece is a popular destination that includes a plethora of tourism cities, this paper illustrates the intentions of Greeks toward tourism activity upon pandemic crisis, when it comes to their travel preferences, as well as their perceptions on health and safety protocols applied in destinations and tourism businesses.

This paper aims to explore the occurrence and implications of staff turnover in the Greek tourism industry as well as looks into the current and future strategies adopted by Greek enterprises for addressing this unavoidable and unpredictable phenomenon.

A survey research instrument was distributed both online as well as through e‐mails over a period of four weeks for collecting primary data from a convenience sample of Greek tourism enterprises. This process yielded 63 usable responses.

The findings revealed that the Greek tourism industry faces similar staff turnover impacts that are also found in other countries. Enterprises reported to experience similar staff turnover levels irrespective of their tourism sector, i.e. travel agents, hotels etc.; staff turnover levels were not found to be homogeneous across organizational hierarchical levels; respondents claimed that staff turnover is mainly instigated by factors that are beyond management control and that staff turnover negatively affects service quality levels, costs and time related to staff recruiting and training, while it enhances idea generation. Strategies reported to be used by the respondents for managing staff turnover demonstrate a shift from people retention strategies to knowledge retention strategies.

The small number of responses suggests that the findings should be treated with caution. New research approaches for studying staff turnover, such as social network analysis, are recommended for future research.

The paper contributes to the international hospitality literature by providing primary data about the level, the type and the consequences of staff turnover in the Greek tourism industry.

The article examines the entrepreneurial decision-making in the Greek tourism and hospitality sector during a period of an economic crisis.

The nationwide study includes the responses of 503 entrepreneurs engaged in the Greek travel, tourism and hospitality industry. The research employs fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), and examines trust, enterprising negotiation power, tourism decision-making considerations and crisis effects. It also includes the categorical data of operational mode and company type.

The analysis has generated three different pathways for entrepreneurial decision-making during crisis in the Greek tourism and hospitality sector. These pathways are (1) crisis conditions, (2) enterprising operations and focus and (3) enterprising capabilities.

Due to the limited employment of fsQCA in the tourism sector, its full potential is still to be explored.

The study provides three different pathways that Greek tourism entrepreneurs select for their decision-making according to the characteristics of their firms and their market orientation.

Theoretically, the study contributes by enhancing understanding of entrepreneurial decision-making during periods of crisis. In the methodological domain, the research employs fsQCA, which has only recently started to be used in tourism and hospitality, and generally the service sector.

While the Greek GAAP is stakeholder‐oriented and commonly viewed as a historical cost accounting model, IFRS is shareholder‐oriented and generally perceived as a fair‐value accounting model. The study seeks to investigate the effects of adopting IFRSs on the financial statements of Greek listed companies. It focuses on major Greek industrial sectors and stock market indices and investigates the effects of IFRS adoption on company financial position and performance.

A binary logistic regression has been applied in order to capture the differences between the pre‐official adoption and official adoption periods. The model focuses on 2004 and 2005. The dependent variable is a dummy variable and takes the following values: 1 for 2005 and 0 for 2004.

The study shows that IFRS implementation has influenced positively the profitability of most industrial sectors as well as those firms that belong to FTSE 40 and SMALLCAP 80. IFRS adoption appears to negatively influence liquidity for a number of industrial sectors and stock market constituents. An increase in leverage is obtained from the examination of the sample stock market indices and industrial sectors. Similar findings are evidenced for firms of large size and high financing needs.

The study is limited in the following respects. The results reflect short‐term timing differences, which may reverse in later accounting periods. Also, companies should have anticipated IFRS adoption and might have adjusted their accounting policies accordingly, or even managed their reported numbers, in the period under investigation, since the EU Regulation passed in 2002.

The findings of the study are useful for investors, shareholders, financial analysts and other market participants as they provide information about the impact of IFRS implementation per major sector and market index. The effects would be expected to vary as each sector and market index carries different financial attributes. Users of accounting information could make use of the findings of the study for the evaluation of the financial performance and prospects of a sector/index and for other investment decision‐making purposes. The study also contributes to the literature as it focuses on a code law country that is stakeholder‐oriented.

The aim of this chapter is to provide a holistic overview of issues and topics regarding tourism geography in Greece: from its origins to its current situation. By following a historical tracking of tourism activities in this country and the growth of tourism geography as an academic domain at the university level, the main goal is to analyze the shift of academic research on tourism from geographical perspective, as presented in both the Greek and English language literature. The chapter concludes that there is a need for practical orientation and redefinition of typologies of tourism geographies in order to apply a more sustainable and cross-disciplinary approach in the academic discourse on Greek tourism.

The purpose of this paper is to take a holistic view of the body of knowledge of the second wave of Chinese outbound tourists so as to develop a strategic framework towards positioning Greece in the China outbound tourism market.

The survey adopted a perspective from knowledge management, investigating a deeper understanding of the knowledge about, from and for the Chinese tourists, and Greece was taken as a case study. An online survey with quantitative aspects was conducted from October 2013 to January 2014.

The knowledge about the Chinese tourists depicts a young, well-educated segment with a predominance of female and western China residents. The knowledge from the Chinese tourists reveals that they prefer: visiting islands and heritage sites; safety while travelling; a faster visa process; a direct flight between China and Greece; and making a trip combined with other Schengen countries. The knowledge for the Chinese tourists indicates that purchasing tourism products/services online provides better price, is enjoyable, convenient and time-saving; and the top five digital platforms often used are Ctrip, Qunar, QQ, Weibo and WeChat, which could be effective tools for the promotion of Greek tourism in China.

This research offers a first step to investigate the knowledge of Chinese tourists for the destination of Greece. The findings help to propose a strategic knowledge framework for the Greek tourism authorities so that Greece can become a more active player in the Chinese outbound tourism market.