When you enter Greece's mountainous peninsula, with its long coastline and unique archipelago, you are returning to the cradle of Western civilization. And while the ancient Greeks fashioned our political, ethical, aesthetic, and scientific values, their descendants down the ages have continued to set trends and shape world events. The Greek character is a product of the landscape. Surrounded by sea on three sides, the physical features of the land forged the pronounced individuality and strong local patriotism of the warring city-states of antiquity. Their shared history and language formed the basis of a powerful world culture. Today it is coming to terms with its recent economic and political upheavals. The Greeks have repeatedly proved they can adjust and shift their expectations—the new generation knows the old ways have gone and is bracing itself for unpredictable challenges. Culture Smart! Greece will equip you with essential information about the background, values, and attitudes of the people you will meet and give practical advice on how to deal with unfamiliar situations. Life in Greece operates on many criss-crossing levels, offering plenty of possibilities and a variety of lifestyles. Visitors emerge from their Greek experience enriched for life, with an enduring affection for this beautiful land and its gifted people.

"Contents include: local customs and traditions; the impact of history, religion, and politics; the Greeks at home, work, and play; eating and drinking; dos, don'ts, and taboos; business practices; and communication, spoken and unspoken" --back cover.

This book gathers the proceedings of the 7th International Conference, with the theme “Culture and Tourism in a Smart, Globalized and Sustainable World,” held on Hydra Island, Greece, on June 17–19, 2020, published with the support of the International Association of Cultural and Digital Tourism. Highlighting the contributions made by numerous writers to the advancement of tourism research, this book presents a critical academic discourse on sustainable practices in the smart tourism context, improving readers’ understanding of, and stimulating future debates in, this critical area. In addition to the knowledge economy and the concept of smart destinations, the book addresses new modes of tourism management and development, as well as emerging technologies, including location-based services, the Internet of things, smart cities, mobile services, gamification, digital collections and the virtual visitor, social media, social networking, and augmented reality.

Don't just see the sights—get to know the people. For much of its history Cyprus was regarded as the Cinderella of empires--beautiful, abused, isolated. Today, the island is divided between the Greek-Cypriot south and the Turkish occupied north. However, both sides take pride in a shared "Cypriotness," and are united in their common hopes, pain, memories, music, excellent cuisine, rich history, and majestic landscape. Culture Smart! Cyprus equips you with essential information on the history, values, and attitudes of the people you will meet, their customs and traditions, and offers tips on etiquette and socializing. Have a richer and more meaningful experience abroad through a better understanding of the local culture. Chapters on history, values, attitudes, and traditions will help you to better understand your hosts, while tips on etiquette and communicating will help you to navigate unfamiliar situations and avoid faux pas.

In this book, Alexander Beecroft explores how the earliest poetry in Greece (Homeric epic and lyric) and China (the Canon of Songs) evolved from being local, oral, and anonymous to being textualised, interpreted, and circulated over increasingly wider areas. Beecroft re-examines representations of authorship as found in poetic biographies such as Lives of Homer and the Zuozhuan, and in the works of other philosophical and historical authors like Plato, Aristotle, Herodotus, Confucius, and Sima Qian. Many of these anecdotes and narratives have long been rejected as spurious or motivated by naïve biographical criticism. Beecroft argues that these texts effectively negotiated the tensions between local and pan-cultural audiences. The figure of the author thus served as a catalyst to a sense of shared cultural identity in both the Greek and Chinese worlds. It also facilitated the emergence of both cultures as the bases for cosmopolitan world orders.

This book explores the ways in which information and communication technologies (ICTs) offer a powerful tool for the development of smart tourism. Numerous examples are presented from across the entire spectrum of cultural and heritage tourism, including art, innovations in museum interpretation and collections management, cross-cultural visions, gastronomy, film tourism, dark tourism, sports tourism, and wine tourism. Emphasis is placed on the importance of the smart destinations concept and a knowledge economy driven by innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship. New modes of tourism management are described, and tourism products, services, and strategies for the stimulation of economic innovation and promotion of knowledge transfer are outlined. The potential of diverse emerging ICTs in this context is clearly explained, covering location-based services, internet of things, smart cities, mobile services, gamification, digital collections and the virtual visitor, social media, social networking, and augmented reality. The book is edited in collaboration with the International Association of Cultural and Digital Tourism (IACuDiT) and includes the proceedings of the Third International Conference on Cultural and Digital Tourism.

An illuminating and practical guide to Bulgarian culture and society. It will help you turn your visit whether its for business of for pleasure into a memorable and enriching experience. Contents include: local customs and traditions; the impact of history, religion and politics; the Bulgarians at home, work and play; eating and drinking Bulgarian style; dos, don'ts and taboos; business practices; communication, spoken and unspoken, and many practical tips for managing the unexpected.