Mediterranean destinations face growing pressure from seasonal mass tourism, contributing to environmental degradation, housing shortages and strain on local water and waste infrastructure. In fragile coastal and protected landscapes, these pressures are amplified by limited visitor awareness and insufficient on-site protection measures. Building destination resilience therefore requires not only better management during peak periods, but also alternative tourism models that structurally reduce pressure while strengthening local socio-ecological systems.

This abstract proposes a practitioner-led presentation of an early-stage, low-season tourism pilot currently being developed on the Greek island of Corfu. The initiative is designed as a small-scale slow tourism model operating in and around ecologically sensitive coastal landscapes, including the Natura 2000-protected Korission Lagoon in South Corfu. Its motivation is to intentionally design low-impact tourism in the low season that can contribute to destination resilience by reducing environmental stress, and fostering more responsible visitor behaviour and place connection. The short-term objective of the pilot is to test key assumptions regarding desirability and market response for such an initiative.

The approach is practice-based and focuses on defining and operationalising the core components of a resilient tourism offer. These include accommodation limited to tourism-only facilities, nature-based activities (e.g., guided hikes and agrotourism visits), low-impact mobility and transfers, locally oriented food provision, and facilitated group-based community activities. Marketing and client generation are treated as an essential part of the operational design, with the pilot targeting a clearly defined niche audience. Inclusive and queer theory–informed design principles (hooks, 1994)  are used as a lens for group curation and facilitation, aiming to support psychological safety, respectful conduct, and a community-oriented travel culture aligned with low-impact nature engagement.

The first preseason implementation is explicitly conceived as a trial-and-error phase comparable to a minimum viable pilot (Ries, 2011), enabling iterative learning and adaptation. Expected contributions include practical insights on how low-season, small-group formats can reduce pressure on sensitive sites, improve visitor conduct through facilitation, and shift value creation toward local food systems and small-scale agrotourism. At the same time, the pilot surfaces open questions that will shape subsequent iterations: how to deepen meaningful involvement of local residents beyond visitor–host interactions, how to link tourism practice to conservation awareness and tangible benefits for protected areas, and what governance conditions are required for such innovative models to emerge and to support long-term resilience.

The presentation will conclude with transferable design principles and open challenges for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers working on resilient tourism futures in Mediterranean destinations.

References:

hooks, bell (1994) - Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom

Ries, Eric (2011) - The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation To Create Radically Successful Businesses