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A. GREEK TOURISM DOCUMENTATION CENTER (G.T.D.C.)

LaReTSA, along with other scientific and collective bodies, co-founded the Greek Tourism Documentation Centre (GTDC). GTCD was founded in 2013 on the initiative of the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels. Its purpose is to provide direct access to reliable information and statistics on the various aspects of the development and evolution of Greek tourism.

The members of GTCD are:

1. Greek Chamber of Hotels.
2. Research Institute for Tourism.
3. Bank of Greece, General Directorate of Statistical Surveys.
4. Hellenic Statistical Authority, General Directorate of Statistical Surveys, Trade and Statistics Division.
5. Center of Planning and Economic Research, Research Department D: Development Policies and Sector.
6. National Centre for Social Research.
7. Employment Institute (General Confederation of Greek Workers).
8. National Technical University of Athens, School of Architecture, Dept ΙΙ: Urban and regional planning.
9. University of Aegean, Department of Business Administration, Laboratory of Tourism Research and Studies.
10. University of Aegean, Department of Business Administration, Laboratory of Quantitative Methods.
11. University οf Thessaly, Department of Planning and Regional Development, Laboratory of Tourism Planning, Research and Policy.
12. University οf Thessaly, Department of Planning and Regional Development, Laboratory of Environment and Spatial Planning.
13. University of Patras, Department of Business Administration, Management Information Systems & Business Intelligence Laboratory (MISBI Lab).
14. Technological Educational Institute of Athens, Department of Informatics, Advanced Systems for Information-Knowledge and Image Laboratory.

B. NETWORK OF TOURISM DOCUMENTATION AND RESEARCH (Ne.T.D.R.)

The Network is constituted on a voluntary basis within a framework of a collaboration memorandum among the Laboratory of Research and Tourism Satellite Account, the Laboratory of Tourism Research and Studies, the Environment And Spatial Planning Laboratory, the research group Intelligent Information Systems Engineering and the network of all members’ foreign collaborators. The network’s administrative board consists of the directors and the scientists in charge of the participating entities. The Director of the Laboratory of Research and Tourism Satellite Account, Professor Gerasimos Zaharatos, is assigned to be Coordinator of this board.

The collaboration within the Network of Tourism Documentation and Research aims to support and exchange views and knowledge among its members, by utilizing the growing specialisation and scientific complementarity and complicity pertaining the fields of interest of all associated parts. Such fields involve research, education, planning and policy of tourism development. Collaboration regards the specific fields covered by the associated members as well as the development and promotion of interdisciplinary activities, such as publications, research, education and consulting services. The February 2006 edition of a series of books titled "Records of Greek Tourism" is part of this collaboration, aiming to facilitate a public discussion on factors that have determined the development of Greek tourism.

The objective and domain of research of each Network’s members are elaborated as follows:

The Laboratory of Tourism Research and Studies of Business Administration Department of the University of Aegean, is occupied with tourism research concerning development, education, planning and policy administration of destination areas and enterprises involved in alternative forms of tourism. Studies about sustainable tourism development are also included. More specifically, the Laboratory’s objective involves ad hoc research in the fields of Tourism Development, Economy of Tourism, Environment and Tourism, Sociology of Tourism, Informatics in Tourism, etc.

The Environment And Spatial Planning Laboratory of the Department of Planning and Regional Development of University of Thessaly, is engaged in studying, the environmental dimensions of spatial planning, the relation between environmental policy and urban as well as spatial planning, the planning of human and natural environments, both in general and in specific situations, such as integrated costal area management, integrated river basin management, sustainable tourism development and others. Concerning the latter, special emphasis is given to methodological tools such as scenarios, SWOT analysis, impact assessment of tourism on both natural and human environment, carrying capacity assessment of tourism development, decision making systems, etc.

The research team Intelligent Information Systems Engineering operates within the Department of Information Technology in the Technological Educational Institute of Athens. Its scientific activities embrace planning and development systems, as well as advanced information systems for economic and social activities such as health, tourism, education and environment. Its main project involves research programs and studies, development projects, organization of scientific meetings and the support of educational work on topics relevant to its. More specifically:

• Design, analysis, planning, study, evaluation, assessment, certification and simulation of complex systems, emphasizing on informational and cognitive mechanisms.
• Development and planning of software and data storage systems, in order to support complex information systems and systems that rely on knowledge.
• Interactive information systems and ergonomic software.
• Intelligent systems, expert systems, decision making systems, application of computational intelligence.
• Study of specialized computer systems by corporate function and economic and social section, such as health, tourism, education and environment.
• Computer graphics and visualization of data, geographical information systems, intelligent systems based on image, technical information systems, and product development and management systems.