The development of tourism concerns the creation of a new built environment and the transformation of the existing, in order to be accommodated the increased need in space that tourism activity demands. Previous studies regarding the impact of tourism on the built environment resulted in the acceptance that it has both positive and negative effect on it. So far, the research field is solely focused on the impact of tourism on the physical environment of the urban space, while there is lack of relative empirical research in the rural setting, even for Greece where tourism is basic economic source, especially developed in rural areas. The dissertation aspires to answer what is the impact of tourism on the built environment in the Greek rural setting. The study identifies the implications of tourism on the man-made physical setting of Pelion villages, which are utilised as a case study, and the impacts refer to both the existing and the newly developed tourism-related built environment.
