Promotion of Religious Tourism Sites on Facebook by NTOs

Tourism related to religious sites and festivals, pilgrimage and spirituality is considered an extremely important sector of the tourism market. The true value of religious sites lies in supporting basic tourism products outside pilgrimage destinations, as churches, cathedrals and monasteries attract many visitors, including those who are not travelling for religious purposes only. For tourists who are not driven by religious motives, religious sites are no different than any other tourism attraction – they need to attract tourists’ attention in order for them to decide to include those sites in their future trip. Therefore, appropriate promotion of religious sites is equally important as promotion of any other tourism product. Since modern promotion has mostly relocated from the traditional to the digital stage, this paper offers research on the frequency of promoting religious tourism sites on Facebook by the National Tourism Organisation of Serbia compared to the frequency of promoting religious tourism sites by the NTOs of the defined competitive set, that is, NTOs of Slovenia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia. In order to provide more in-depth analysis, the frequency of promoting religious tourism sites on Facebook by the four European countries with the highest number of religious sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List was analysed, that is, NTOs of Italy, Spain, Germany and France. The study presented in this paper is focused on promotion of religious sites to all types of tourists, not only the religiously motivated ones. For the purpose of the research, all posts published by the official Facebook pages of the analysed NTOs during the period of one year were analysed. The research provides valuable insight into the frequency of promoting cultural tourism attractions and determining how many cultural tourism attractions promoted were religious sites. The posts promoting religious sites were analysed in more detail, therefore the most frequently promoted religious sites by the analysed NTOs were determined, the type of content used in order to promote them, as well as the level of interactivity of the posts promoting religious sites. The most important contribution of the research presented are the data on the engagement rate of the posts promoting religious sites compared to the overall engagement rate of the posts published by the analysed NTOs

The link between digital media and making travel choices

The development of new information technologies, especially the Internet, has led to changes in the approaches of applying marketing in tourism in many ways. Under these circumstances, digital marketing is gradually taking the leading role in every modern tourism marketing strategy. As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, keeping up with new developments and trends and adapting to the online sphere is vital for all tourism companies and organizations that want to maintain their current success and attract new tourists. The digital revolution has forever changed the way the media operate, and the changes brought about are far from over. The aim of this paper is to show the role and importance of digital marketing in modern tourism. In order to reach the conclusion, the paper will show the results of the research on the degree that Serbian tourists rely on digital media while choosing a tourism destination and making additional travel choices. The data collected were analyzed using the statistical analysis software SPSS, version 23

Millennials and gamification: A model proposal for gamification application in tourism destination

A wide range of scientific and professional literature deals with the topic of gamification in tourism, defining it as a new trend. In this paper a model for applying the concept of gamification at the level of the tourism destination is proposed. As a basis, and an introduction to the analysis in this paper, millennials are selected as a market segment with high dynamic growth on the tourism market. The role and importance of millennials for tourism and destinations are especially reflected in their traveling habits, lifestyle and dedication to the use of new technologies in everyday life, and in particular playing games. The commitment of this tourism demand segment to gaming activities, as well as the fact that millennials will make a significant part of the tourism market in the future, points to the need to establish a link between millennials, gamification and its application which may provide multiple benefits for both tourists and tourism destinations. Those benefits are reflected in the improvement of the overall tourist experience as a fundamental product in tourism, on the one hand, and in the improvement of all tourism destination elements

Competitiveness of Serbia as a tourist destination: Analysis of selected key indicators

To achieve the favourable competitiveness position, tourist destination has to offer quality experiences to tourists that can make the destination more attractive compared to other tourist destinations. The role of destination management is to exploit and develop existing resources by using clear and effective strategies for developing tourism products and creating additional value of tourist experience. The first step of analysis is to define destination competitiveness by using the indicators which will review and give the guidelines for improvement of competitive position. This paper discusses the tourist destinations' competitiveness and indicators for its measurement with a special reference to Serbia. Tourism development of Serbia is a big chance for overall economic development of the country. Current competitive position of Serbian tourism on international market is not satisfactory and this paper is trying to analyze and to point out the reasons of Serbia's tourism low competitiveness. Conclusions about the competitive positioning of Serbia as a tourist destination are drawn out firstly based on the relevant studies as well as on the Serbian Tourism Development Strategy. The results of Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (WEF TTCI) reports for Serbia are also presented. Based on own research, this paper is also showing the results related to competitiveness of Serbia as a tourist destination in terms of two groups of indicators: natural, cultural and historical resources as well as destination management. According to the results, Serbia is more competitive in its natural, cultural and historical resources comparing to the role of destination management

Country brand equity model: Sustainability perspective

This paper proposes a model of country brand equity that incorporates the issue of sustainability in determining destination brand equity. In particular, the model includes elements of sustainability as its core dimensions and promotes the concept of the country sustainability promise that transforms destination resources into the positive perception and experience. The theoretical model is empirically tested using global secondary data confirming that country image is the most important element followed by sustainability and loyalty. Also, the analysis suggests the existence of the higher order construct confirming the country brand equity concept. Based on the research findings, the article offers some implications to the destination managers by suggesting the direction for further development and strategy implementation

Saobraćajni tranzitni pravci kroz Jugoslaviju i EZ

The authors first review the transit routes through Yugoslavia of interest for the single EC market and this from the standpoint of passenger and freight transport. They remind of an urgent requirement of construction of a new and reconstruction of the existing rail network in accorda11ce with the high speed systems introduction trends. Especially the market which refers to the development of transit routes through Yugoslavia as a factor of advancement of transit and tourism in relation to the future common EC market.</p