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The Colonels on the Beach: Tourism Policy During the Greek Military Dictatorship (1967–1974)
- Journal of Modern Greek Studies
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 35, Number 2, October 2017
- pp. 425-450
- 10.1353/mgs.2017.0026
- Article
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Abstract:
The junta's relationship with tourism was characterized from its outset by the regime's lack of popular legitimacy. During the junta's seven-year reign, tourism served as both a means to create political consensus and the main vehicle for growing GDP. This paper examines the emergence of tourism as one of Greece's main economic sectors, as it were, during the Colonels' regime and the implications of this development on the economy, regional development, cultural representations, and social relations. I draw on state planning documents, legislative acts, and the periodical press to consider how tourism was transformed during the junta's seven-year rule from an economic and growth ideal to a factor that led to the regime's cultural and political destabilization.