Tourism and Development An Ideational Analysis of a Grassroots Environmental Movement in Corfu, Greece

Sammanfattning: Tourism as an economic activity has been on the rise for the last decades. For that reason, it is labeled as a vehicle for development and for generating economic growth. While the sector is benefiting local societies it is also the root of societal and environmental problems. For that reason, local societies are mobilizing against the sector and its further development. The aim of this thesis is to examine a grassroots environmental movement (in Corfu), which opposes the privatization and a proposed tourist investment in an ecosystem named Erimitis. The main focus of this thesis is to demonstrate the diversity that exists inside the movement and to examine the content of the existing ideational elements of the movement, through the approach of orientational frames. Additionally, in order to understand the movement in a more holistic way, there is the need to examine the perceptions of the activists regarding development through tourism. However, examining the perceptions of the activists about development through tourism is an important issue on its own. By inspecting those perceptions, it is possible to understand how they experience development through tourism and where they trace the fallacies of the sector and development in general.