As part of the JoinOut project, qualitative research was carried out via a focus group, which aimed to explore the perceptions and attitudes of the members of the e-paithros Network regarding sustainable development and rural tourism.
During the virtual focus group, three themes were discussed using photographs, images and infographics:
1. The concept of “Sustainability”
2. The three (3) pillars of the concept of “Sustainable Tourism” and
3. The challenges and opportunities presented by tourism.
The speech analysis of the qualitative data revealed the following:
The participants demonstrated a strong positive attitude towards the concept of sustainability, as evidenced by their use of the past simple tense in their discourse analysis, as well as by their frequent use of positively charged adjectives and adverbs.
With regard to the pillars of the concept of “Sustainable Tourism”, the participants expressed a strong conviction regarding the need to balance the three dimensions and incorporate them into the training of members of the e-Learning Network. With regard to the participants’ perceptions of the challenges and opportunities that tourism presents for their local area, a strong concern was raised about disproportionate tourism development and “overtourism”. At the same time, the strong commitment of all participants to incorporate and promote sustainable tourism development practices in their local area was emphasised.
The combination of qualitative and quantitative data contributes to the final development of the educational material intended for the training of members of the e-paithros Network. Finally, the results of the research will be used by ETAM S.A., by the project partners, by the members of the e-paithros partnership and by rural tourism operators in general.
The project entitled “Joint Innovative Activities for Outdoor Tourism”, with the distinctive title: “JolnOuT”, is being implemented within the framework of the Action “Cooperative Innovation Formations/SCC” – 2nd Call: Businesses and is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and by national resources under the Operational Programme ”Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation (EPANEK) of the NSRF 2014–2020“ (Project code: F2CL-0359457)
