The Western Silk Road in Greece Kostopoulou Stella Scientific Supervisor Kyriakou Dimitrios Malisiova Sevasti Sofianou Evina Toufengopoulou Anastasia Xanthopoulou–Tsitsoni Valia Silk Road Programme 2016 Western Silk Road Tourism Initiative A UNWTO-EU Initiative This study is part of the Western Silk Road Tourism Development Initiative, a joint cooperation between the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the Directorate- General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG Grow) of the European Commission (EC). Western Silk Road in Greece Research Team Stella Kostopoulou is Associate Professor of Regional and Tourism Development at the Department of Economics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh). She has also taught at Cyprus University of Technology, Hellenic Open University, International Hellenic University, Democritus University of Thrace, University of Thessaly, and gave lectures and seminars at Universities abroad (Peking University, La Trobe University, York University). She is Departmental ECTS/Erasmus/LLP Coordinator of the Stella Kostopoulou Department of Economics, AUTh. Her research interests Associate Professor include regional economics and planning, tourism Aristotle University of Thessaloniki development, cultural industries and local development. She Department of Economics has participated in 70 international and national Tel: +30 2310 996423, +30 6932236366 conferences and published in international journals. E-mail:
[email protected] Dimitrios Kyriakou is an Economist and PhD Candidate in Tourism and Regional Development at the Department of Economics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh), Greece. He holds a BSc in Economics and Regional Development (Panteion University, Greece), an MBA in Business Finance Management (The University of Liverpool, UK) and an MSc in Tourism Management (University of Surrey, UK). He is member of the teaching team in the undergraduate courses “Tourism Development”, “Regional Development” and “Economic Geography”, Department of Economics, AUTh.