Residents’ Perceptions of the Transition towards Digital Transformation in the Tourism Industry. The Case of the Chania Prefecture

Crete is an archetypal summer tourism destination in the Mediterranean. It "suffers" fromstrong seasonality during the summer months, while the tourist season shrinks on an annualbasis. As a strategy to address these problems, the literature suggests digital transformationof the local tourism industry and a greater emphasis to be devoted on technology and theopportunities it offers to entrepreneurs and local communities. This study explores the viewsof the residents of the prefecture of Chania, Crete, on how they perceive concepts such astechnologically advanced tourism industry, digital transformation and transition factorstowards a technologically advanced tourism industry. Chania prefecture suffers tremendouslyfrom increased tourism activity during the summer months and technology is perceived as asolution to the resulting problems. The semi-structured interview technique was chosen tocollect information from the participants. The results of the survey revealed numerous anddiverse concerns of residents in different areas of the county. Therefore, it could be concludedthat the assumption that technological innovation is a panacea for tourism development doesnot apply equally to everyone.