Crete: Endowed by Nature, Privileged by Geography, Threatened by Tourism?

Crete, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean and the largest Greek island, is a highly heterogeneous region which has experiencedrapid tourism development since the midto late 1960s when the growth in international tourism and broader socioeconomic changes disturbed past equilibrium patterns. Tourism has become a leading economic sector but has also caused several unwanted economic, environmental and sociocultural impacts and, currently, it appears to threaten the island’s sustainability. The principal goal of official development plans is the achievement of sustainable development and the promotion of tourism in the island. To make realisticsuggestions for the transition to sustainability it is essential, however, to identify the two-way relationship between tourism and the context within which it develops. The paper offers a broad-brush, integrated analysis of tourism and local development in Crete in three time periods since the late 1960s. It presents its impacts, evaluates them with a consistent set of sustainability criteria and probes into the essential requirements for securing the sustainability of development of the island and of its tourist sector. It concludes with a brief account of theoretical issues related to tourism development in heterogeneous destinations.