Impact of Discovering the Monumental Tomb in Amphipolis Greece in Tourism Development of the Region

The existence of anthropogenic resources - historical and architectural monuments, fortresses and towers, palaces, archeological excavations and memorable places, in an area and their proper utilization can lead to development of tourism. The scope of this paper is to examine the impact of discovering the monumental tomb in Amphipolis Greece, in tourism development of the region. The tomb of Kasta is located some 100 km east of the city of Thessaloniki, in north Greece. According to the archeologists, the tomb is dating from 325 to 300 B.C., close to the end of the reign of Alexander the Great. The large size of the tomb, the materials used and the excavations show that it was constructed for an important personality. In order to achieve the aim of the study, an empirical study was conducted by developing a questionnaire for analyzing the impact of discovering the monumental tomb in Amphipolis, Greece in the tourism development in the region. The questionnaire was distributed to hoteliers in the nearest summer resorts (distance around 15km) – Asprovalta, Vrasna, Stavros, Ano Stavros, and the nearest big cities (distance around 40-100km) – Kavala, Serres, Drama and Thessaloniki. The measuring instrument is consisted of several thematics-questions about the present situation, the plans for the future and the opinion about the importance of the discovery for the tourism development. The conclusions show the positive impact of the excavations and are formed in graphs and tables. Recommendations have also been made for increasing the numbers of visitors and income in the region.