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The present study aims to understand how a culture associated with proximity to the Mediterranean Sea transcends political boundaries fostering common values and beliefs across three countries.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted in Italy, Spain and France to assess similarities and differences between respondents. The qualitative data were augmented with the literature pertaining to Mediterranean identity, culture and the influence of contextual factors on its development.

The three geographically proximate countries all border on the Mediterranean Sea. The interviews revealed common cultural elements that transcend political boundaries suggesting that the common context fosters similar cultural elements. At the same time, there are important cultural elements that are uniquely associated with each country.

The geographic composition of the sample limits the generality of the results. By design, it focuses on three countries to limit other sources of variation such as affluence and religion. A sample across additional countries would have provided greater confidence in the results, although the selected countries are representative of a large portion of the Mediterranean area, especially in terms of values. Inclusion of respondents from countries with different levels of wealth, religious and political ideologies would likely uncover additional facets of Mediterranean identity.

A key implication relates to the extent that similar values and beliefs appear to cut across political boundaries suggesting the existence of transnational segments. It also suggests the importance of considering contextual factors when developing an understanding of consumer behavior.

The paper provides insights into the concept of Mediterranean identity, through an examination of the literature and respondents’ perceptions and attitudes about the sense of belonging and attachment to Europe, their country of birth and about being Mediterranean. The notion of a Mediterranean culture has been examined conceptually, but not empirically. This study begins the process of establishing the degree to which Mediterranean identity and the extent to which it exists across multiple countries.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a measurement scale that captures elements of Mediterranean identity.

A scale was developed from items drawn from existing scales and from a qualitative study that examined how respondents viewed their national identity as well as the concept of a Mediterranean identity. The literature pertaining to Mediterranean identity, culture and the influence of contextual factors on its development were reviewed. The scale revealed four dimensions of Mediterranean identity: traditions, relationships, ethnocentrism and a bond with the Sea.

The scale successfully discriminated between those living by the Sea and those living inland. At the same time, it did not differentiate between respondents living in the north from those living in the south. The study suggests that context, specifically proximity to the Sea, helps shape some of the regional variation in values and beliefs.

The geographic composition of the sample limits the generalizability of the results. A sample across additional countries would provide greater confidence in the results, although much of the theoretical work on Mediterranean thinking has focused on Italy. Further, it was desirable to keep as many factors as possible constant to limit extraneous variation. Inclusion of respondents from countries with different levels of wealth, religious and political ideologies would likely uncover additional facets of Mediterranean identity.

The results have broader implications for identifying transnational segments that may exist around the Mediterranean. A key implication relates to the extent that similar values and beliefs appear to be associated with proximity to the Mediterranean Sea. It also highlights the importance of considering contextual factors when developing an understanding of consumer behavior.

Mediterranean identity has been examined conceptually, but a systematic means to measure is lacking. The essence of Mediterranean thinking embodies the importance individuals place on adhering to traditions, the value they attach to personal relationship, a certain degree of ethnocentricism, and of course the bond with the Sea. The results also suggest that differences that have been attributed to a north/south divide, needs to be reexamined.

This study uses ethnographic methods to explore the discursive practices that give life to ethnic restaurants, establishing identity, and addressing community engagement. Employing postcolonial and postmodern perspectives that discuss discursive practices of hybridity, authenticity, and commoditization, the research focused on five culture-specific restaurants: Irish, Italian, Korean, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern. The restaurants' stories are studied through observation, interviews, and the situated approach as discussed by Denzin (1994). The findings suggest that some restaurants openly embraced hybridity, defied and debunked stereotypes, and resisted hegemonic constructions of individuals and of culture by enacting narratives of defiance, while others attempted to maintain traditional images or commodify the culture. Using the situated approach revealed a post-postcolonial tension between certain restaurants within the community.

Mediterranean architecture is considered the predecessor of the modern concept of “bioclimatic” sustainable design due to its climate reactive attitude (Coch H. 1996, Vissilia, A.M. 2009). Another aspect which renders it to be associated with the notion of modern sustainability is the employment of recyclable materials such as natural stone and wood. The vernacular architecture of Bodrum peninsula located in southwestern Turkey bears the typical characteristics of Mediterranean architecture. Since the 1970s, Bodrum has been attracting the attention of local and foreign tourists. The “architectural pollution” created by tourism facilities paradoxically devastates the natural and unique architectural characteristics of Bodrum which attract the attention of tourists. In this article, the primary focus will be the residential architecture in Bodrum due to its quite dominant typology among tourism facilities. However, the local building regulations aiming to protect natural values and architectural identity and the sensitive attitudes of some architects about preserving architectural identity and visual ecology can be considered positive aspects with regards to the harmonious architectural development of the region. Visual ecology seems generally more vital than biophysical ecology in terms of sustainable tourism economy, and tourism, is the most important sector in Bodrum. In a touristic region such as Bodrum, cultural and economic sustainability are interrelated. Today, research related to sustainability focuses primarily on energy saving and relevant technological inventions and as a result, issues such as cultural expression, contextual connection, identity formation, local differences and changes do not get their deserved places in the sustainability value setting. This paper aims to detect some clues about the outline of the residential architecture within the context of cultural sustainability in Bodrum in the light of residential architecture samples.

International tourists traveling the eastern Adriatic are sometimes perplexed when some guides describe a Venetian bell tower, a Byzantine church, or Roman ruins as solely Croatian or Slovenian cultural heritage. If the same guides would then reveal that Marco Polo should be spelled Marko Polo for his Croatian origins, their perplexities would probably grow stronger. Most of the time, the same tourists are unaware that the Austrian Navy kept the codes and the tradition of the Serenissima Republic of Venice. Actually, until the Empire split in 1867, it was named Österreich-Venizianische Marine (Austro-Venetian Navy). Interestingly, according to the legend, the Austrian Admiral von Tegheltoff (German speaking subject of the Empire, born in the Alpine town of Maribor-Marburg, currently in Slovenia) after the famous victory in the battle of Lissa in 1866 hailed “Viva San Marco!” The Austrian victory against the fleet of the Kingdom of Italy was surprising and it has become a legendary one both in a good and bad sense. Accordingly, it has been later romanticized in different ways and strategically imbued with moral values by diverse actors. For instance, the journal of Admiral Wilhelm von Tegheltoff reports the famous sentence: “Iron men with wooden ships defeated wooden men with iron ships.” So, Tegheltoff stressed the virtues of the imperial subjects vis-à-vis the lack of moral strength of the opponents. As a matter of fact, the kingdom of Italy's fleet was stronger in numbers and technologically more advanced, but less organized and riddled with conflicts among the admirals. Quite differently, hundred years later, one of the most prominent journalists and writers from the Italian region of Veneto, Guido Piovene, said that: “the battle of Lissa has been the last great victory of the Venetian fleet.” The reason for such statement is that the mariners boarded in the Austro-Venetian fleet were all from former Venetian lands, such as Veneto, Istria and Dalmatia. Therefore, from this standpoint, the battle of Lissa is a matter of an “Italian” dispute between different maritime traditions, namely the Adriatic one of Venice and the antagonist Genoese or Neapolitan. Conversely, in Croatia and Slovenia, there is usually a different version of the story. The battle of Lissa is seen as a victory of a Croatian-Slavic navy over the Italians. Particularly, the battle of Vis (Lissa) is usually referred to as part of Croatian national history and it is a crucial step to legitimize the Croatian identity on the Adriatic Sea, because many of the sailors were ethnically Croats.

Yet, this is not a book on the tourism industry; nor is it on the changes induced by it, or on how it has been analyzed by social science disciplines, but on the social nature of tourism. Together, all the case studies reflect an effort to understand global and mobile dynamics and the production of collective memories and cultural identities in the Mediterranean region through ethnographic examples from different areas (such as Andalusia, Crete, Istria, Costa Blanca, Marseille, Mallorca, Lesvos, and Marrakech). However, this context of global mobilities cannot be understood apart from the constant presence of tourists in the Mediterranean coasts. Tourism has been the driving agent of the essence and orientalizing images of most of Mediterranean territories during the last 100 years (Tzanelli, 2003). Labor immigrants, tourists, and new residents from various nationalities and with different personal motivations converge and share with locals the same locations, and create new places that mushroom all over the territories, be it urbanizations, private beaches, or even detention hotels. Besides, the increasing voting relevance of these new social categories through their participation in local and regional elections is adding value to their role as social agents in the political sphere (Chueca Sancho & Aguelo Navarro, 2009; Janoschka, 2010). The practices and the meanings that give sense to daily life (culture) seem to blur traditional dichotomous notions such as leisure/labor, locals/residents, and nationals/foreigners.

City identity is a distinct form of collective identity based on the perceived uniqueness and meanings of place, rather than group category and membership. A city’s identity is constructed over time through architecture, which involves three sign systems – material, visual, and rhetorical – and multiple institutional actors to communicate the city’s distinctiveness and identity. We compare Barcelona and Boston to examine the identity and meaning created and communicated by different groups of professionals, such as architects, city planners, international guide book writers, and local cultural critics, who perform the semiotic work of ­constructing city identity.

This article tackles Croatian public diplomacy, destination and nation branding vis-à-vis an emerging Instagram trend to publish dark tourism related pictures sometimes using the official hashtag CroatiaFullOfLife; hence, poking Croatia tourism development accounts, which promote the country as merely a Riviera destination, and deletes the memories of Yugoslavian and Second Independence wars. Such a monolithic, shortsighted and amnesic destination branding strategy neglects alternative public tourism and public diplomacy opportunities.

The article may improve the understanding of the links between the concepts of Public Diplomacy, nation and destination branding through an exploratory study of dark tourism amateurs experiences in Croatia, documented by pictures published on Instagram, the key digital social media for destination branding. It also outlines the history of Croatian tourism and government's efforts in promoting the overwhelming image of a sunny sea destination since the launching of the “Croatia Full Of Life” destination branding campaign in 2015. The study compares what and how dark tourism amateurs and Croatian main social media influencers publish contents destined to foreign publics.

Croatia's official PR strategies and Instagram accounts ignore the increasing interest of foreign tourists, local younger generations and artists in abandoned places and Yugoslavian and Homeland War heritage monuments. These “light dark chiaroscuro” places are nowhere to be seen on Croatia's official Instagram account. Croatian government fails to embrace some aspects of the nation identity and to take advantage of Instagram trends and niche dark tourism influencers to boost and enrich its public diplomacy and the memorialization process of the darkest aspects of its past.

This research suggests that international Instagram influencers as well as local photographers, artists and history amateurs promote many shades of light–dark chiaroscuro tourism approaches. Their posts tell new narratives about the past and its memorialization, far from the silence and denial promoted by Croatian official Instagram accounts. Mainstream IG Croatian lifestyle marketing influencers and institutional accounts consistently shows beaches, blue waters and bikinis strictly respecting a monolithic, shortsighted and amnesic destination branding strategy. This study shows that some destination and nation-branding strategies could hinder rather than enhance public diplomacy.

During the past two decades Croatia has faced numerous challenges: gaining independence, war conflicts, political and economic transition and the process of European Union (EU) accession. Despite rich and diversified landscapes and cultural heritage, it is still faced with problems limiting the economic development. So the purpose of this chapter is to point out the pragmatic reasons of Croatian delay in the process of adjustment to European business and agricultural policy standards.Based on statistic and literature analysis, the study determines specific characteristics of Croatian regions, rural areas, rural population and agriculture. Agriculture after independence shows increase in utilized area, but the production is still below pre-war level and results with unsteady and modest value. Harmonization with Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) standards is slow; big steps have been made in establishing new institutions in agriculture and preparing adequate legislative framework, so there are no significant formal differences between Croatian and European agricultural policy. However, European agricultural policy models cause problems. There is a daily debate about a low degree of self-sufficiency of the domestic production, low competitiveness and uncontrolled import of farm products. Farmers still often expect for the government to organize the production and guarantee the purchase prices as were in former, socialistic system.Due to these reasons, a fear was expressed by farmers that they could not be able to meet the strict criteria for the European financing. Despite this, a large part of farmers see the possibilities for their existence in rural areas, mostly through development of non-agricultural activities.

This study aims to investigate consumer acceptance for a set of innovations that can be applied to the production process of extra-virgin olive oil. The final purpose is to verify whether, and to what extent, consumer acceptance of innovations varies depending on the type of technology used and the profile of consumers.

A cross-sectional consumer survey has been carried out in Italy. A structured questionnaire was administered to a national representative sample of individuals who are responsible for grocery shopping (N = 1,003). Consumer acceptance for a set of ten innovations has been measured. Statistical differences between the various measures have been analysed through pairwise comparisons using Wilcoxon's signed-rank test, and subsequent effect sizes have been estimated. A cluster analysis has been also performed to distinguish consumer segments with different response patterns.

The results showed that the type of technology affects significantly the level of consumer acceptance of the tested innovations. In addition, high heterogeneity has been detected among consumer responses, and this leads to identify three consumer segments with different response patterns.

The study is focused on extra-virgin olive oil, which is one of the most important traditional food product in Mediterranean countries. This is the first study where several innovations for extra-virgin olive oil were jointly tested and compared for acceptance through a survey on a nation-wide representative sample of consumers.