Inter- and intra-regional tourism disparities in Greece: trends and impacts for balanced regional development

This paper builds on the literature on whether tourism promotes balanced regional development (BRD) by examining intra-regional disparities as part of total tourism inequality, an issue that is rarely addressed, and then not for a developed country. To that end, Mean Log Deviation (MLD) indices of tourism demand and supply indicators are compared in the case of Greece. The results indicate that inter-regional disparities are the main driver of total inequality, apart from the case of domestic tourism. The latter can be a more effective tool for BRD, which is not accomplished under the current tourism spatial pattern. The paper, lastly, provides recommendations at which level (national or regional) tourism policy becomes more essential to effectively reducing inequalities.