ABSTRACT
During the Greek classical period, visitors and foreigners were considered sacred and were believed to be protected by Zeus. In the spirit of this ancient tradition of hospitality, contemporary Greece has instituted a tourist industry of considerable magnitude, and the country has continually been classified among the world's most popular tourist destinations (Conde Nast Traveller 1998). Greece's touristic gamut 1 comprises an array of spectacular attractions encompassing natural beauty and rich history and culture. A plethora of mainland destinations along with 15,000 km of coastline and over 2500 islands (spread out into the Ionian and Aegean Archipelagos), which add to the country's ‘mass charter attractiveness’, have been the catalyst for transforming the country into a vacation spot of international calibre. The phenomenal expansion of tourism development since the 1960s has transformed the basis of socioeconomic structure, altering the country's life chances and welfare, accompanied by adverse sociocultural and ecological ramifications (Kassimati et al. 1994; Loukissas 1977; Loukissas (co-ord) 2000).
