April 2022 – The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) conducted a Destination Assessment of Heraklion, Greece, from March to December 2021. The Destination Assessment was led by Dr. Ioannis Pappas, GSTC Program Director for the Mediterranean Region, working closely with Heraklion’s authorities.
Heraklion Tourism Overview
Heraklion is the largest region of Crete and a major tourist destination in Greece and Europe. Tourism is one of Crete’s primary industries, with 5,287,600 international visitors and 4,573,656 international visitor hotel arrivals in 2019, of which about 44% visited the region of Heraklion. Tourism is a major economic source for the region of Heraklion. The total direct revenue from tourism for 2019 was 3.6 billion euros.
Heraklion also has the biggest port on the island in regard to cruise passenger numbers, with 307,043 arrivals in 2019. More than 1.7 million passengers arrived by ferry in the same year, either for tourism or other purposes. The port has an annual passenger capacity of up to 0.5 million for cruise tourism, hosting up to 5 cruise ships at once. While boosting Heraklion’s economy, this growth is unavoidably linked with operational difficulties and challenges to the city’s social, cultural and environmental resources.
GSTC Destination Sustainability Assessment of Heraklion
In December 2020, city leaders in Greece teamed up with the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) and Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) to assess the sustainability status of the municipalities of Corfu and Heraklion, intending to inform future sustainable tourism planning. The two municipalities agreed with GSTC and CLIA to co-fund sustainability assessments for each destination. The Heraklion Port Authority and the Corfu Port Authority participated as strategic partners in the initiative. The GSTC Destination Assessment for Heraklion was therefore co-funded by Cruise Lines International Association, the Heraklion Port Authority, and the Municipality of Heraklion.
The GSTC Destination Standard is structured around four pillars of destination sustainability: destination policy and planning, community involvement and benefits, management of cultural assets, and management of environmental and natural resources. The assessment of Heraklion was conducted by Dr. Ioannis Pappas between March and December 2021, in close collaboration with local authorities during a period shaped by COVID-19-related restrictions.
The evaluation of Heraklion’s performance against the GSTC Destination Standard V2.0 included a review of relevant laws and policy documentation related to city management. In addition, approximately 60 stakeholders were consulted, including representatives from national and local government, the private sector, NGOs, academia, and local communities. These consultations were conducted through a combination of virtual and on-site engagements to assess the destination’s sustainability performance.
Commitments to adhere to the GSTC Destination Standard
Heraklion’s participation in this Global Sustainable Tourism Council Destination Assessment, one of the first in Greece, reflects the city’s commitment to destination stewardship. The findings and resulting action plan from the assessment provide a reference point for informing future initiatives aimed at supporting the sustainable management of Heraklion.
The GSTC encourages Heraklion to continue monitoring progress in the adoption of the GSTC Destination Standard and to use the assessment findings as a baseline for ongoing improvement.
In the words of the Mayor of Heraklion, Vassilis Lambrinos, “In Heraklion, the economic and tourist capital of Crete, the municipality is responding to the challenges of our times by taking the bold step of evaluating the sustainability of the city. We are cooperating with CLIA on this initiative, and we anticipate that, with the knowledge and support of GSTC, new perspectives will be opened for Heraklion as a tourist destination as well as further development of cruise tourism, while respecting sustainability principles.”
GSTC CEO, Randy Durband stated that “GSTC applauds the popular destinations of Heraklion for taking seriously the imperative for continuous improvement in managing their destinations more sustainably. We also applaud CLIA for its active participation in these endeavours. For our part, GSTC pledges our usual impartiality in delivering objective assessments of the current approaches to sustainable management.”
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