E-commerce in the Context of Protected Areas Development: A Managerial Perspective Under a Multi-Criteria Approach

Protected areas are under national and international environment laws because their recognized biological and environmental values provide economic prospects. The Prespa Lake Ecosystem, shared by three countries, Greece, FYROM and Albania, constitutes a dynamic model of local economic growth, environmental protection, joint management and international cooperation. Internet has become an alternative channel on business standard and especially, e-commerce constitutes an imperative within the viability of an enterprise. The concept of e-commerce is all about using the Internet to incorporate previous business models and economic strategies. This paper studies the e-commerce adoption in the Prespa Park Basin, a Greek protected area, member of NATURA2000 network, for regional development. E-commerce websites are ranked respecting their content and characteristics, as attributed to 30 variables. Following, the multicriteria method of PROMETHEE II is applied in order to perform evaluation and ranking tasks. Furthermore, the optimum e-commerce units are identified aiming to benchmark further e-commerce adoption in local enterprises. Finally, necessary recommendations for e-commerce website optimization is presented.