Sample A postal survey method was used for the research and was collected by means of questionnaire. The sample size used was 124 five-star Greek hotels based on the Greek National Tourism Organization (2006) site. The whole list of GNTO five-star hotels was used, being the 1.3 percent of total population (9,049) (www.gnto.gr/pages.php?pa geID 1⁄4 29&langID 1⁄4 2). All categories of hotels are included in this population, even the furnished apartments which account for the majority of the hotels. The main reason for choosing only the five-star hotels is that although they are not representative of the whole population, it was assumed that the biggest hotels would more likely follow a formalized strategic planning process. The questionnaires were sent to the managing directors of the hotels and they had a structured format. The managing directors of the hotels were chosen to be surveyed as the issues examined require management knowledge, good understanding of the questionnaire and most importantly deep knowledge of the hotels’ strategic planning process. Managing directors were considered for these reasons to be the most appropriate persons in their companies to be surveyed.