Social Media Activism on Cultural Tourism: A Proposal for Paleochora in Aegina, Greece

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have influenced the way people communicate and socialize in the twenty-first century. The aim of this paper is to clarify how cultural civic activism has been strengthened by social media platforms which nowadays are an essential part of every day’s life of people of all ages worldwide. Social media are important sources of mobilization of collective action and of the subsequent creation, organization and implementation of social movements around the world. Therefore, they can help to develop and promote a region by achieving different cultural tourism objectives. Based on the existing limited research on tourism literature related to social media activism and the theory of imagined communities a project in progress for Paleochora on the island of Aegina in Greece will be presented. Paleochora (also Paliachora) is a medieval village of Aegina built in the ninth century; it was the capital of the island until 1826. A small island, such as Aegina, would be expected to willingly use its cultural resources, in an effort towards sustainable socioeconomic development of the local community nowadays. Paleochora, the so called “Morea of the Saronic Gulf” stands devastated instead, surrounded by a landscape of unique beauty which remains untapped. The “Paleochora Prοject”, if successfully completed, will add social and educational value, and the implications could be the beginning of a process for sustainable development in the region.