Αθανάσιος Κουστέλιος

The importance of Greek tourism for both the economy and the society has been widely discussed in the relevant literature. It has also been acknowledged that tourism education significantly affects the quality of the services offered and as a result, influences competitiveness in the global market. Tourism education in Greece is provided through a wide range of educational units both private and public, at higher education and post-high school levels. The development of job related skills is considered crucial, although many employees in the tourism sector have not received any formal training and do not hold any relevant degree. Instead, they remain competitive in the labor market due to their experience in the respective sector. The purpose of this empirical study, is to investigate tourism education changes over time and understand whether tourism education in Greece is currently undergoing a development or degradation phase. Factors like economic circumstances and technological developments are also assessed in terms of their role in the quality of the tourism education services offered.

The development of social media has been reported to have reshaped the tourism industry, as in general revolutionary information and communication technologies have deeply affected the society and its overall functioning. Facebook and Tripadvisor are two of the applications mostly discussed that do have an important impact on the image of the companies associated with the sector. The contribution of Greek tourism in the country’s economy has been highlighted several times over the years. However, not all the regions contribute equally. More specific, coastal areas and islands that represent the core Greek tourist product, sea and sun, are the most popular ones. Others, like Thessaly, despite their potential, are struggling to maintain a piece of the pie. Through this study is attempted, two hot issues, such as social media and tourism, to be approached and to conclude in whether a digital investment for the region of Thessaly would be a valuable one. In order to answer that, relevant literature has been reviewed. The current situation has been described, involving the promotion of both Thessaly as destination and tourism-related enterprises using ICTs and social media. The factors affecting the effectiveness of the investment, like economic circumstances, the geography and culture of the region are also examined.

The purpose of the study was to explore the levels of job satisfaction of Greek employees and to examine the effects that specific personal characteristics have on these levels of job satisfaction. The sample consisted of 252 (51.7%) males and 235 (48.3%) females of different bank organizations. The results of the present study suggest that in general Greek bank employees are enough satisfied with their job in general. Moreover, MANOVA and post-ANOVA analysis have concluded that specific personal characteristics of the bank employees affect different aspects of their job satisfaction and their levels of job satisfaction in total such as gender, age, marital status, educational level and the position that they hold in the bank. Also, the years of their general experience as bank employees, the years that they have been working in the specific institution and the years that they have been working in the same position affect their job satisfaction in a statistically significant way.

The purpose of the study is to examine the Greek bank employees attitudes about the present organizational culture of the bank where they work and about their desired organizational cultures after five years. The sample consisted of 252 (51.7%) males and 235 (48.3%) females of different bank organizations. The results of the present study suggest that bank employees think present organizational culture as controlling while at the same time they would prefer more clan and adaptive types of culture in the organization. Also, ANOVA analysis has shown that in terms of the attitudes about the present organizational culture only the variable of years of general experience as bank employees affect their attitudes, with employees with 1-10 year sof experience grading the present culture as more hi-erarchical and less adaptive and participative. As far as desired organizational cultures are concerned men and women state different preferences, administrators would like it to be more hierarchical and new employees would like it more to promote participation and adaptation to the external environment and less orientated to the market.

During the last two decades tourism in Greece has become a mass industry concentrated in the island areas. Although they were not part of the more developed regions of the country, tourism in its current structure contributes to the strengthening of interregional disparities in Greece. In addition, in the centers of mass tourism socio -economical unsustainable mend and supply structures evolved. Simultaneously, a question was raised whether the domestic tourism market can increase, and can it offer a socio - economic alternative to the further expansion of international mass tourism. Thus, the so far little developed Center and Northern Greece, with an abundance of historical sites and natural highlights, can offer new destinations for domestic travelers while contributing to a sustainable development of these regions. As a precondition a national domestic tourism policy, stable prices and a strong promotion of the new destinations are essential in these turbulent economic times.

In today’s global, informational economy of rapid change, opportunities and threats arise equally for tourism organisations as well as tourism destinations. Unexploited Emerging Consumer Markets (ECM’s) on the one hand, and fragmented, dominated markets in the western world on the other call for a more than ever need for competent and effective management and strategy. ‘As tourism destinations become more substitutable due to increasing competition in global tourism markets, destination personality is seen as a viable metaphor for building destination brands and crafting a unique identity for tourism places’ (Caprara, Barbaranelli, and Guido 2001). Following this latter, the purpose of this study is firstly to identify and clarify how Greece's destination personality and branding is perceived by respondents who have visited the country as well as by those who have not and secondly to analyse the relationship between tourists intention to recommend due to the experiences offered to them during their stay. The contribution of the study hopefully will provide nutrition to improve the marketing strategy of the destinations and to provide data for further research regarding the perception of destination personality both on the pre-purchase and post- consumption phase. Keywords: Destination Branding, Brand Personality, Tourism Planning, Experiential Tourism, Consumer Behavior JEL: M31, L83