New Models of Cultural Tourism: Investigating Alternative Athens

During the times of economic crisis some innovative forms of cultural tourism have progressively commenced to appear reflecting the creativity of young people trying to escape from the road of an economic dead end. This article is a case study that investigates the development of a small-scale creative business initiative at the city of Athens that promotes alternative products of cultural tourism in parallel to the traditional models during the stress of crisis. Mythology storytelling walks, creative workshops, educational games, street art sightseeing, LGBTQ tours and meals with the locals are some of the activities that this firm provides attempting to reassemble the notions of authenticity in contemporary Greek culture. The discussion is developed by integrating the viewpoints of the firm's owner/manager with tourism social theory reflecting that success is possible even in the times of economic crisis when innovative leadership is implemented