The Effects of Tourism in Greek Insular Settlements and the Role of Spatial Planning

During the second half of the twentieth century, Greece has experienced changes on all levels of economic, social, and environmental sectors which are associated directly or indirectly with the rapid growth of tourism. The impacts of this growth have decayed local resources and jeopardized the country’s sustainability in the long term. This kind of development has influenced the country’s insular regions which due to the lack of industrial development have a great dependency with the tourism sector. So the wealth of islander Greece depends almost exclusively upon tourism. Moreover, the intense development of tourism often contrasts sharply with the protection of uniqueness, as it implies urbanization and exploitation of resources. The question that the paper tries to answer is if spatial planning of Greece has managed to control the pressures of tourism in the insular built environment and particularly to the settlements. The current paper examines the way tourism has influenced the Greek insular settlements population and spatial characteristics. It examines the changes of population during the last 20 years and the environmental problems that are caused by the intense development of tourism infrastructures. It also investigates the spatial planning tools that are used in urban and regional levels for the insular areas sustainability. Finally, it argues that tourism should be properly planned and researched in order to achieve equitable return on the resources that are utilized for the provision of tourism services, while ensuring the sustainability of environmental assets.