Strumenti per un nuovo protagonismo turistico delle comunità locali: la soggettivazione della offerta turistica

There are some places widely considered among the most beautiful and attractive on the globe and which, in a society strongly oriented towards mobility, can only be among the most touristically frequented by travelers from all parts of the world. This is the case of the Island of Crete, a tourist destination that has certainly played an important role in the tourist boom recorded in recent years by Greece: over twenty five million people have made a holiday on the Hellenic territory every year for at least three years, growing twice the world average, with tourist seasons that have stretched to almost eight months a year. Crete, in just a little over twenty years, has had to continually reorient its offer according to the new types of tourists that have replaced each other over time. Up to a certain point, the vast majority of tourists were Germans, followed by Italians and then Russians. The Cretans have been able to demonstrate great elasticity and great adaptability. The collaboration with some local public institutions has generated research relating to the evaluation of the Greek tourist destination by tourists from private homes. The assessment included not only the point of view of local tourists, but also that of foreign tourists and tourists of Cretan origins now living elsewhere, and offers a very wide spectrum of judgments and evaluative visions which, in our opinion, represent a great knowledge of the "touris"; area for all those involved in the local governance of tourism development. The survey allowed to know and monitor the tourist and consumption behavior of Italian and foreign tourists staying in private homes, as well as their degree of satisfaction with the holiday they are carrying out. The investigation is therefore instrumental in monitoring the quality of the tourism product, its perception by this type of demand.