Agritourism: A Lever for the Development of the Greek Countryside. The Case of Nymphaeum of Florina/Greece

This paper attempts to map agritourism and outline its process that has been taken up today in Greece. It sets questions regarding agritourism development issues and their relationship with the area under investigation, which is Nymfaio in Florina. Initially, it refers to characteristics and activities that have taken place, in areas where agritourism is developing, as a tangible reality during the last seventy (70) years, for developed agritourism countries of Europe and a new experience of almost fifty (50) years, for the Greek tourist economy and society. It records the “new tourist reality” in Greece, detecting the peculiarities of Nymfaio, an agritourism destination, an area of exceptional importance with a preserved traditional settlement and also a preserved historical place, at an altitude of 1,346 m in Vitsi area. On the one hand, it is the area for entertainment and resting of tired people of the cities, who prefer to visit it, and on the other hand, it gives local people the possibility to “stimulate their rural income.” The two aforementioned different starting points are the one, which can also specify the future of agritourism in the “Nymfaio of Florina” and obviously omens positively the agritourism’s progress of development.