Tourism and Ecologically Sensitive Areas: The Case the Prefecture of Preveza from Citizens’ Point of View

The immeasurable value and necessity of protecting and promoting the natural wealth that distinguishes a geographical unit demand the adoption and implementation of a multifaceted strategy, aiming to preserve and manage an ecologically sensitive area systematically and, by extension, to ensure the viable development of tourism. All this must be accepted by the citizens in order for changes to occur without people’s complaint and protests. Under this assumption, the objective of this paper is to investigate the attitudes and beliefs of residents regarding ecotourism development in the Preveza prefecture, an area mainly characterized as Natura and Ramsar protected. It also reflects the citizens’ beliefs regarding the possibility of developing modern forms of tourism activities near or within the environmentally sensitive area, in the light of a viable-sustainable development in the prefecture. In order for this to be accomplished, field research with the means of a questionnaire, developed especially for this reason, was undertaken. Sample involved 150 permanent residents of the Preveza prefecture from all three municipalities (Zirou, Parga, and Preveza) via mall-intercept personal interview. Thus, residents rated their point of agreement for tourism exploitation of nine nature-related attraction sites and seven modern forms of tourism activities within these nature attractions sites. Residents consider that alternative tourism (92.0%) and not mass tourism is indicated for the area and specifically in the form of ecotourism (94.5%) for sustainable development (86.4%) of the region. Regarding the nature-related point of interests which could be potential tourist attractions, locals consider all sites as potential tourist attractions, but the ones with the highest rate are Acheron river (delta) Alonaki Beach- Nekromanteion (necromancy, 93.9%) and the straits of Acheron river-Trikastro-Skala Tzavelena (91.7%). As to modern types of tourism, they rated biking and hiking-trekking as the best for the region (89.5%). Moreover, they consider that the responsible bodies for tourism development of Preveza, which should keep nature protected and unspoiled, are mainly the local authorities and operators (59.4%). The expected benefits of recording citizens’ opinions and beliefs aim at rational regional planning and are very important. Results are discussed, and recommendations for implementation are provided.