Tourism, economic development and culture in Greece and Bulgaria: Approaches in Thessaloniki and Plovdiv

In the era of globalization, competition between cities is commonplace/frequent phenomenon, although economic theories believed that only businesses compete with each other. Nowadays, in order to attract visitors, residents and investments, the cities are turning to a search for policies and tools for reconstruction and upgrading of their characteristics. For this reason, cities' competitiveness plays a central role in local government and urban development policies. The present paper aims at studying the strategies between two different cities concerning the touristic development process. The two cities were chosen because of the fact that they are the second-largest cities of Greece and Bulgaria, additionally with rich cultural heritage and cultural diversity. Primary data was collected through semi-structured interviews, which are defined by a set of predefined questions and were based on open-ended questions. Α comparison was made between the two cities taking into account the data collected resulting to specific conclusions about the current situation, while at the same time it is of particular interest to repeat the research in the long run.