Research Background

The Laboratory of Research & Tourism Satellite Account of Patras University has managed thus far to set up as well as to assist its research and educational efforts with:

• The widest Data Base of unified material concerning Greece’s tourism industry, dating back to 1920’s. Accurately speaking, this statistical data is dealing with :

• The Data Base of the latest tourist arrivals from year 1929.

• The Data Base of the latest overnight stays in the country from year 1960.

• The 1929-2000 Data Base of International Tourism Receipts, as well as the respective figures for 2000-2004 measured in € terms.

• A Data Base covering the capacity of hotel and similar accommodation establishments being interspersed all along the territory of Greece for 1925-2005 period. This set of data is illustrating the situation on both regional and local level.

• An archive of tourism-related legislation going back as far as 1920’s.

• An electronic Archive (e-Archive) of EU-bodies regulatory actions since 1970.

• An electronic Archive (e-Archive) per subject debates and negotiations of Tourism Committee of OECD, since 1950.

• A ‘Specific Geographical Archive’ of Greek tourism, fostered by La.Re.TSA which is aspiring to produce a Data Base of Greek tourism resources at national, regional and local level. This programme is subsidized by a research programme called ‘Karatheodoris’, which is basically a Patras University programme aimed to encourage basic research into a wide variety of scientific areas. ‘Karatheodoris’ research programme is going to play an instrumental role in terms of informational and statistical data in the construction of the Greek Tourism Satellite Account which is the key research area of the LaReTSA. Basic sections of this data base are as follows:

− Natural resources (utilization of land, preserved and forest areas, water resources, etc.).

− Cultural and heritage resources (historical and archaeological remnants, cultural festivities, etc.).

− Economic and demographic data (real population of specific areas at regional or local level, labour force, level of education, etc.).

− Tourism demand and supply (arrivals, overnight stays, capacity rates, conference centres, etc.).

− Tourism Education.

− Tourism Investments.

− Tourism Bodies and related Organizations.

− etc.

• Significant experience as well as files of statistical information has also been drawn from the carrying-out of a study under the title “Evaluation of the Statistical and National Account System of Greek Tourism” for years 2002 and 2003, being entrusted by the Ministry of Development.

• Substantial experience has been simultaneously obtained through the carrying-out of specialised empirical as well as methodological studies and research attempts on Greek tourism industry during the 1980’s by the researchers.

• In the laboratory there is a wide range of studies and research notes related to Greek tourism, classified in geographical order, in both published and electronic way. Its library is additionally enriched with a comprehensive archive concerning Tourism Satellite Accounts, deriving from the following organizations:

• Public Sector

− United Nations World Tourism Organization (U.N.W.T.O)

− Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (O.E.C.D.)

− International Labour Organization (I.L.O.)

− Eurostat

• Private Sector

− World Travel and Tourism Council (W.T.T.C.)

• The Laboratory of Research & Tourism Satellite Account of Patras University has also the privilege of exclusive access to the ‘Archive of Greek Tourism’ (or AGT) – a private tourism-related library in Greece, which includes more than 16.000 records and documents, approximately 4.500 issues of specific bibliography and numerous files of tourist maps and tourist guides dating back to as early as the beginning of the 19th century.

• An extended electronic file of bibliography and references of more than 10.000 books dealing with both Greek and international tourism industry.