Local Quality Convention (LQC) in a Mountain Area (Greece)

The study focuses in Lake Plastira in a mountain plateau located in Karditsa region, Central Greece. The niche refers to the introduction of an organisational/institutional innovation, the Local Quality Convention (LQC) - in 1999 - and displays the volatile course of an incomplete niche within a successful emergent transition. The transition refers to the conversion of a marginalized mountain area into one of the most popular rural tourism destinations in Greece. With the active involvement of a range of actors and obligatory rules for the participating enterprises, the formal aims of the LQC include the upgrading of income and the improvement of the standards of living, through the protection and strengthening of the environment and the advancement of tourism services in order to respond to challenges faced in the area.