WELLNESS TOURISM – COMPETITIVE BASIS OF EUROPEAN HEALTH TOURISM DESTINATION

Wellness tourism, as global phenomenon of the 21st century, has become an imperative for the successful development of health tourism destinations. Millions of tourists travel to destinations all over the world every day, with one goal - to preserve and improve their mental and physical health. Tourism market is characterised by intensive changes, so the task of the health tourism destinations’ management is to follow those changes vigilantly, in order to be able to adjust their offer to the current trends. In that way, the creation of integral health tourism product is achieved, which will meet the needs of the contemporary customers, who are becoming more demanding and sophisticated. The aim of this paper is to present the importance of wellness tourism in the contemporary offer of health tourism destinations

RESIDENTS SUPPORT FOR TOURISM IN POST-PANDEMIC TIME – A CASE STUDY OF VRNJAČKA BANJA

The future of tourism after one of the greatest health crises caused by the novel coronavirus is uncertain. Fear of infection and health concerns increased during the pandemic. The restrictive measures have limited international travel, which led to great expectations of an end to the pandemic for freer movement and safe travel. The great consequences of the COVID-19 for the tourism industry and tourism destinations will have its effects even after the end, and the post-pandemic tourism recovery strategies should be well planned and in focus along with strategies for the keeping tourism industry during the crisis. This paper aims to investigate the residents’ support for post-pandemic tourism in one of the most famous tourism destinations in Serbia, Vrnjačka Banja. The support of the residents was observed taking into account their perceptions on tourism during the pandemic.Publishe

SWOT analysis of wine tourism development opportunities in the Trstenik vineyard district

Serbia is traditionally a wine-growing region and it is slowly approaching those countries that have benefited from the development of this type of tourism. The subject of this paper is the analysis of the Trstenik vineyard district, whose wine-growing areas, although within a small municipality in Central Serbia, are one of the largest in the country within the Three Morava Rivers region. The Trstenik vineyard district can take a chance and find its place in this specific tourism market. The aim of the paper is to present all the strengths and opportunities, but also the threats and weaknesses for the development of wine tourism in this wine district. This is presented through SWOT analysis. All the results could be used to make this municipality as wine tourism destination in Serbia.Publishe

Human resources in the hotel industry of Serbia

Serbia is a country of significant but still insufficiently used tourist potential, uneven development of tourism, and a high concentration of tourist traffic. This implies a focus on a small number of tourist destinations that are commercially profiled. Serbia is characterized by a lack of a systematic approach to the development of tourism. This implies a lack of appropriate strategies that would adapt to specific areas, according to their attractiveness and specificities. It also implies inadequate human resources that should implement strategically set goals. It is necessary to define priorities, primarily in the area of profiling the material basis of tourism, i.e. the offer of accommodation facilities. It is necessary to provide adequate personnel, whose activity will be a key factor in the further development of tourism and hotel industry of Serbia. The aim of this paper is to look at and analyze the basic characteristics of employment in the hotel industry of Serbia, primarily the volume and dynamics of the employees in the hotel industry and their qualification structure, in order to identify the key weaknesses and to point out the ways for their overcoming. Secondary statistical data were used in this context and the analytical-synthetic method was applied. As shown in this paper, positive shifts in improving human resources in the hotel industry of Serbia are evident. A further improvement of human resources in the hotel industry of Serbia should be guided by global trends, in order to encourage a further improvement of the quality of the hotel industry in Serbia as a tourist destination.Publishe

Residents` Perceptions of Socio-Cultural Impacts of Tourism in Vrnjačka Banja, Serbia

In order to reach the sustainable development of a tourism destination, it is important to investigate how residents perceive the impacts of tourism development. Tourism may cause improvements in residents' quality of life in many aspects of it. On the other side, with a greater number of tourists of different cultures in a destination, unpleasant crowds can occur, which may lead to community disruption, loss of cultural identity of the local community, and to other negative socio-cultural impacts of tourism. The danger of negative impacts of tourism might be even greater when the destination is small, considering the total number of residents and the size of the territory. This paper analyses the residents` perceptions of the socio-cultural impacts of tourism in Vrnjačka Banja, the leading spa destination in Serbia. The survey method was used to collect primary data and it included 110 respondents. Data were processed by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Results indicate that residents have more negative perceptions of the socio-cultural impacts of tourism in Vrnjačka Banja than positivePublishe

The role of volunteers "Kragujevac Greeters" in improving the competitiveness of Kragujevac as tourism destination

Modern business conditions as an imperative to subjects operating in the sector of tourism set the necessity of timely response to the competitive challenges. In the case of tourism destinations, it is important to identify the factors that contribute in improving the competitive position on the tourism market. Main subject in this paper is focused on defining competitiveness of tourism destination - basic theoretical assumptions that will represent an base for the analyze of the factors of production - resources of Kragujevac with potential to be valorized on the tourism market. The paper specifically analyzes the group of volunteers "Kragujevac Greeters" and how the group functions, their work activities and the role of these group of people in improving the competitive position of Kragujevac as tourism destination on the market. In a conditions of operating on a highly competitive and turbulent tourism market, for tourism destinations which use their resources inefficient or do not have the human capital that will contribute to the valorization of these resources is hampered the possibility of success

The application of geographic information systems in destination marketing

Contemporary business trends influence tourism destinations to use advantages that modern information technology provides. Geographic information systems (GIS) could be used for those purposes, especially in area of marketing management. In this regard, the subject of this paper is to determine if GIS application in destination marketing has positive impact for tourism offer and demand. The paper is based on secondary data, gathered from academic publications from different scientific fields: tourism and hospitality, marketing and ICT. Research results confirmed the primary hypothesis, which indicated that GIS application could be beneficial for both tourism offer and demand. The significance of the research results is reflected as a contribution to theoretical framework of GIS in the tourism, as well as in making a foundation for implementation of those systems in practical marketing activities on the level of the tourism destination

The examination and assessment of winery business and contribution to the development of wine tourism of Serbia

The tradition of winemaking on the territory of Serbia dates back to ancient times. Today the activities related to wine production are on the rise, as is the number of wineries, and they participate in the valorization of wine tourism activities as an important Serbian tourist product. The aim of this paper is to assess the business excellence of wine producers in Serbia via the application of BEX model while establishing a correlation with the data on the promotion of wine tourism activities on the analyzed wineries' websites. The attained research results indicate a decrease in the BEX index in 2018 in comparison with the values from 2017 and are within the parameters for good values. However, there is no correlation between the performance of wineries and the promotion of wine tourism on their websites.Publishe

Motives for visiting the national parks of Serbia

This paper explores motives for visiting national parks in Serbia. The results were obtained from the responses of 840 visitors who were surveyed while they were staying in Serbia’s national parks during June 2020. The aim of the paper is to examine whether the motives for visiting the parks correlate with visitors’ sociodemographic characteristics: gender, age, educational level and employment status. The results showed that there are statistically significant differences in motives to visit national parks in relation to gender, while among other sociodemographic characteristics such as employment status, education and age, the correlation is negligible. The scientific contribution of the paper lies in the possibility of applying the research results elsewhere, to help understand visitors’ motives, as well as create attractive tourist offers in national parks based on sustainable development.Publishe

Mycotoxins as one of the foodborne risks most susceptible to climatic change

The impact of climate change on agriculture and food safety is certain. This may affect mycotoxin concentrations as fungi with higher temperature optima for growth and mycotoxin production will dominate in regions with currently cooler climates, or become less prevalent as the temperatures become too high in areas where the temperature is already hot. In Serbia, recent drought and then flooding confirmed that mycotoxins are one of the foodborne hazards most susceptible to climate change. This paper ams to discuss the weather influence on the mycotoxicology situation and to point out the possibility of prediction and prevention of such future problems