In the post-war years, the prevailing model for tourism development in Greece has been given various definitions, such as, "spontaneous", "chaotic" "and unplanned". This model was in fact resulted from the development of international mass tourism and mainly related to sun activities concentrated in coastal zones. It is primarily a model representing the demand for tourism goods and services, the main feature of which was mass production and standardization for the final beneficiaries the tourists - consumers, as a result of socially organizing the demand, mainly of an international nature.
The law draft on enhancing tourism entrepreneurship and "Organized Tourism Superstructure» as suggested by the Ministry of Tourism, intends to encourage a number of investments in the Modular Tourist Complexes (M.T.C.) and in the Areas of Integrated Tourism Development (A.I.T.D.), in the country’s popular tourist regions and islands, inevitably exacerbating the current problem of oversupply of tourist accommodation. In this paper we will seek both to define and conceptualize the above notions and discuss the negative and positive effects that bear its implementation, however we will attempt to propose "alternative actions" and measures, which require the differentiation of the Greek tourism model.
The main objective of this paper is to examine whether the promotion of the M.T.C. and the A.I.T.D., as well as their integration into the current tourism policy in Greece have been sufficiently explored by the Ministry of Tourism, international experience taken into account. After outlining the kind of tourism development at the M.T.C. and the A.I.T.D. at international level, the present paper aims at criticizing the resulting effects at spatial level.
Conclusively, alternative actions and measures of tourism development related to a qualitative approach of the existing oversupply of tourist accommodation in the country will be presented, since it the Modular Tourist Complexes and the Areas of Integrated Tourism Development do not constitute an enlarged spatial planning of the coastal zone, weighing heavily upon the excessive demand for accommodation.