Tourism Planning and Development in Eastern Europe

Three decades ago, the hypermobility of tourists from the days before the global pandemic was truly unthinkable in Eastern Europe. The borders were closed and the region isolated from the rest of the world. Despite an extraordinary transformation of tourism in the area since, Eastern Europe remains under-explored in tourism studies. This book fills the gap by outlining contemporary strategies for tourism development in post-socialist countries, considering the opportunities and challenges as well as the initiatives and approaches to sustainability. Reviewing tourism development and planning across Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Latvia, Poland and Romania, this book: - Offers a contemporary and insightful outlook of Eastern Europe tourism, with a wide range of case studies from inter-disciplinary and single-disciplinary perspectives; - Uses varied methodological approaches and research methods, including in-depth interviews, focus groups, informal conversations, document analysis, netnography, questionnaires and secondary data, to form an interesting and diverse treatise; - Considers post-COVID tourism and the significant role of tourism stakeholders in its re-development. Illuminating the various economic, socio-cultural and environmental impacts that tourism has created, this book is a valuable reference for researchers and students of tourism and related disciplines, as well as anyone interested in the development of Eastern Europe.

Dr Hania Janta is a Research Coordinator at the Department for Cultural Studies and European Ethnology, University of Basel, where she manages an ESRC, EU-India Platform-funded "FilmInd - The Indian Film Industries as a driver of new socio-economic connections between India and Europe" project. Previously she worked as a Lecturer/Senior Lecturer at Bournemouth University, School of Tourism, and as Senior Lecturer at University of Surrey, SHTM, where she managed a large doctoral programme in tourism and hospitality management. Since 2016 she remains a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Surrey. Her research interests include tourism labour & human capital issues as well as contemporary forms of mobility. She has done research in the context of Eastern Europe focusing on Poland and Slovakia. She has published nineteen per-reviewed papers in a range of journals, including Annals of Tourism Research and Tourism Management, numerous book chapters, and co-edited two special issues: on Reconceptualising VFR Mobilities in Population, Space and Place, 2015 (with Cohen & Williams) and Human Capital, Competences and Youth migration in JEMS, 2019 (with Lulle & Emilsson). She is an Evaluator/Expert Reviewer for the European Commission and various National Science Foundation bodies.

Dr Konstantinos Andriotis works at the Hellenic Open University (Greece) and he is an adjunct professor at Taylor's University (Malaysia). In the past he worked as a Professor in Tourism at Middlesex University London and Associate Professor and Head of the Hotel and Tourism Management Department at the Cyprus University of Technology. He holds an MSc in International Hospitality Management (University of Strathclyde, 1995), a PhD in Tourism Development and Planning (Bournemouth University, 2000) and a Post Doc in Tourism Marketing (Hellenic Open University, 2006). He edits the 'International Journal of Tourism Policy', the 'Journal of Qualitative Research in Tourism' and the CABI Regional Tourism Series. He is author/co-editor of twelve books and over 50 peer reviewed articles and book chapters. His work has appeared in a variety of leading academic journals, such as Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Travel Research, Tourism Management, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Hospitality Management as well as International Journal of Tourism Research. He has an h-index of 38 and approximately 7000 citations. He was listed in the Stanford University list of top 2 per cent of scientists in the World. He has acted as Chairman and member of the Organising and Scientific Committees of various international conferences and he has given keynote speeches in several conferences. His research interests include tourism development and planning, alternative forms of tourism, tourism experience and degrowth.

Dimitrios Stylidis is an Associate Professor of Tourism Development and Destination Promotion. He holds a Ph.D. in Tourism with a specialization in Tourism Development and Marketing from the University of Surrey, U.K. an MSc in Tourism Management from the University of Surrey, U.K. and a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the University of Macedonia, Greece. He has taught for several years in the Department of Economics at the University of Crete (2021-2025), where he received the department's Teaching Excellence Award for the academic year 2022-23. He also taught at Middlesex University London (2015-2021) where he served as the Director of the MSc International Hospitality and Events Management program, and at Ben-Gurion University (2012-2014). His research interests include tourism marketing, destination marketing and image, tourism policy, planning and development, and the role of residents in these processes. He has published numerous academic papers in international peer-reviewed journals, including: Tourism Management, Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Travel Research, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing. He serves as a member of the Editorial Board of international journals such as the International Journal of Tourism Research, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, CABI Tourism Case Studies, International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, and an academic reviewer for over 30 international journals and conferences. In 2023, he received the Best Reviewer Award from the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management.