Heritage as an Alternative Tourist Product : The Case of the Spinaloga Islet in Greece

Crete is an established tourist destination. Tourism has become a basic sector of the island’s economy, contributing significantly to its Gross Regional Product and Employment. At the same time it has produced significant social and economic problems. The island’s current tourist product, with respect to its lifecycle, is in the stage of consolidation and in some overdeveloped regions, of the northern axis, in the stage of stagnation. At the same time it is extremely vulnerable being in intense competition with neighbouring regions. Authorities and the island’s business community are considering alternative tourist products to maintain Crete’s niche in the tourist market. In this paper after a literature review on the problems that the development of mass-tourism has caused, in particular to island regions or states, the emergence and potential of heritage tourism is reviewed. Subsequently, the results of a study designed to investigate the attitudes of foreign visitors towards the islet of Spinaloga, a Venetian fortress which for half a century was used as a lepers’ asylum, are presented and the main conclusions are discussed