The Faro Convention as a Key Driver for Cultural Tourism Development: Heritage Initiatives of Museums and Cultural Stakeholders in Greece

The Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society of the Council of Europe (2005), known as the Faro Convention, is an innovative and people-centered policy text that initiated a new way of thinking, understanding, valuating, and managing cultural heritage. Despite its new approach, this Convention hasn’t yet been signed and ratified by many Member States. However, it constantly shapes a frame of reference, which influences many cultural institutions and heritage stakeholders of the public and the private sector. This paper attempts to shed light on heritage-led initiatives in Greece that meet the Faro Convention’s main values and principles. These initiatives are mainly introduced in the intersection between the cultural museum policy and tourism. Therefore, the paper presents in brief the strategic interplay between culture and the core themes of the Faro Convention. Then, it offers an overview of several museum initiatives and European partnership projects developed in Greece and focuses on the critical analysis of the information gathered through literature review, in order to argue, in the final part, for the importance and the role of the Faro Convention in the development of innovative and sustainable cultural tourism.