Dimitrios Folinas’s research while affiliated with International Hellenic University and other places

Accessibility is a fundamental human right and a key driver for inclusive tourism, particularly for individuals with disabilities, the elderly, and others with mobility challenges. This study aims to promote the Pieria region, Greece, as an “Accessible Tourist Destination” through the development of a digital platform designed to provide detailed information on the accessibility of routes, public spaces, and points of interest. The platform collects and displays data on the region’s accessibility infrastructure, including ramps, sidewalks, and points of cultural and tourist interest, allowing users to plan safe and convenient routes. The methodology involves comprehensive audits of accessibility features, and the data are integrated into an online platform, enabling personalized suggestions for users based on their needs. Initial results from the Platamonas area show detailed documentation of 68 points of interest and 97 routes, improving the accessibility experience for visitors. The findings suggest that accessible tourism has the potential to not only enhance social inclusion, but also contribute to local economic growth by attracting a broader range of visitors. The digital platform represents a significant step towards promoting tourism for all in Pieria.

The occurring growth in e-commerce comes along with an increasing number of first-time delivery failures due to the customer’s absence at the delivery location. Failed deliveries result in rework, causing a significant impact on the carriers’ delivery cost. Hence, the last mile is the portion of a journey that involves moving people and commodities from a transportation hub to a final destination, which should be an efficient process. The above-mentioned concept is used in supply chain management and transportation planning. The paper at hand is a position paper that aims to scrutinize the concept of driverless last-mile delivery, with autonomous vehicles, in order to highlight and stress the challenges and limitations in the existing technology that hinder level five autonomous driving. Specifically, this work documents the current capabilities of the existing autonomous vehicles’ perception and cognition system and outlines their future skills towards addressing complete autonomous last-mile delivery, as well as efficient robotic process automation in logistics from warehouse/distribution center to hub’s delivery.

Recently, the world has been faced with a variety of environmental, social, and economic problems. The effects of climate change and the lack of resources are constantly intensifying, while at the same time the impact of industrial production has become an international issue. Undoubtedly, this global paradigm and these relevant social and economic challenges require joint efforts at an international level. During the past few decades, a number of companies in Greece have undertaken initiatives towards sustainable development (SD) by adopting “green” practices. This work presents the findings of a survey that has been conducted in 2020, which investigates the extent of business contribution to the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Research was based on the analysis of sustainability reporting published by Greek companies. The key findings of the survey show that issues related to environmental protection, societal well-being, and citizens’ quality of life have attracted an increasing level of awareness in the Greek industry sectors. Issues such as climate change, as well as sustainable production and consumption, are becoming topics within companies’ day-to-day agenda.

The primary aim of this paper is to examine the use of social media by managers in the field of tourism, especially in small and medium-sized businesses in Greece. An explanatory quantitative survey has been applied to collect, process and analyze primary data using questionnaires answered by 302 tourist accommodation owners, originated from 35 prefectures across the mainland and the islands of Greece. The research has indicated that the degree of social media dynamics is also large in small and medium-sized businesses. Regarding the goals that every business wishes to achieve by using social media, it has come up that businessmen seem to be content with their simple preserve on social media and retain mainly an informative and advertising approach. Based of the findings, it has become apparent that social media use, even for advertising purposes, occurs but without being a part of a general strategy promotion, thus with no specific plan or goals, without realizing the benefits of their advantages, and with no results measurements.

In this paper, a holistic methodological framework is developed aimed at the design and productionof effective packaging that satisfies the needs of the modern market.Marketing and logisticsmanagers, food technologists and social responsibility executives acknowledge the importance of aholistic approach to marketing and strive to consolidate their perception of such an approach andwhat it entails for packaging. Food producers can take account of these efforts and utilize thoseelements which emerge as being appreciated by all of the constituents cited above. To this end,primary research data was collected using a questionnaire that was completed by managers in therelevant business units of companies operating in the prepackaged agri-foodstuffs market in Greece,a major and competitive market.

The main objective of this paper is to identify the incentives (strengths) that attract tourists to use the Airbnb platform. Moreover, Airbnb tourists’ expectations are compared to the services provided by hotels in order to assess their possible weaknesses. Via a quantitative survey that includes the exploration of the knowledge and use of this platform, a comparative analysis of the levels of agreement, along with a disagreement with the various incentives, are identified in order to highlight how important the practical factors for Airbnb’s choice are. The results show that the hotel industry is actually exposed to Airbnb’s existence and clearly disputes the statement as to whether Aibnb complements or just competes with traditional accommodations.

The intense competition in the tourism sector increasingly pushes tourism destination marketers to seek more effective promotional practices, so that they remain competitive and attract more visitors. The fast expansion of the internet and social media provides the opportunity for destination marketers to approach potential tourists in a simple and cost-effective way. While managing the official pages of destinations on social media, the basic question that arises is the configuration of the content, and how attractive this content could be for potential tourists. The purpose of this study is to investigate what elements of a destination, when displayed on social media, could be attractive factors for tourists. Through the analysis of push and pull tourism motivation factors in particular, this study focuses on the segmentation of the Greek market for those traveling abroad and the emergence of the basic elements that could attract each segment through social media. The respondents have been classified into four segments, according to the motives that more greatly influence their desire to travel. This analysis also shows the important relationships between these segments and the pull motivation factors on social media. The study concludes with findings and suggestions that can contribute to the planning of an effective social media marketing plan. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/11/4770/htm