Sustainable Development of Rural
Tourist Settlements in Serbia: Building
A Better Future for All
Dragica Gatari´ c and Bojan M. Ðerˇ can
1 Introduction
The development of tourism, as a complex industry in Serbia, was influenced by
numerous internal and external factors, which in a circular-causal relationship acted
and contributed to this trend. However, despite numerous and diverse natural and
anthropogenic potentials for tourism development, Serbia has so far failed to position
itself more successfully in the regional and international tourism markets. Many
scientists point out that tourism as a phenomenon is a product of leisure, those tourist
movements where various activities are pursued, such as entertainment, recreation,
culture, health, learning, etc. Mass travel tourism gained its concretization only when
there was an excess of leisure time and an increase in the material standard of the
people. Tourism, therefore, has over time established itself as a very important,
attractive and irreplaceable segment of leisure and is considered to play an increasing
role in everyday life (Jagi´ c 2005).
In Serbia, given the number of tourist villages (395—6.4% of the total number of
tourist resorts), as well as the representation of all types of tourism, there are various
ways that leisure time can be spent. A tourist village is a permanent settlement visited
by tourists, mainly inhabitants of large cities, during holidays, vacations or breaksin
order for them to return to nature and anatural way of living (Ðuki´ c 2005).
In the methodology of the Statistical Office of Serbia, the tourist sitemost often
coincides territorially with the formal and planned boundaries of the settlement,
D. Gatari´ c (B)
Department of Human Geography, Faculty of Geography, University of Belgrade, Studentski trg
3/III, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
e-mail: gataricgaga@gmail.com
B. M. Ðerˇ can
Department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management, Faculty of Sciences, University of
Novi Sad, Trg Dositeja Obradovi´ ca 3, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia
e-mail: bojan.djercan@dgt.uns.ac.rs
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2021
A. Lubowiecki-Vikuk et al. (eds.), Handbook of Sustainable Development and Leisure
Services, World Sustainability Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59820-4_12
171
Tourist Settlements in Serbia: Building
A Better Future for All
Dragica Gatari´ c and Bojan M. Ðerˇ can
1 Introduction
The development of tourism, as a complex industry in Serbia, was influenced by
numerous internal and external factors, which in a circular-causal relationship acted
and contributed to this trend. However, despite numerous and diverse natural and
anthropogenic potentials for tourism development, Serbia has so far failed to position
itself more successfully in the regional and international tourism markets. Many
scientists point out that tourism as a phenomenon is a product of leisure, those tourist
movements where various activities are pursued, such as entertainment, recreation,
culture, health, learning, etc. Mass travel tourism gained its concretization only when
there was an excess of leisure time and an increase in the material standard of the
people. Tourism, therefore, has over time established itself as a very important,
attractive and irreplaceable segment of leisure and is considered to play an increasing
role in everyday life (Jagi´ c 2005).
In Serbia, given the number of tourist villages (395—6.4% of the total number of
tourist resorts), as well as the representation of all types of tourism, there are various
ways that leisure time can be spent. A tourist village is a permanent settlement visited
by tourists, mainly inhabitants of large cities, during holidays, vacations or breaksin
order for them to return to nature and anatural way of living (Ðuki´ c 2005).
In the methodology of the Statistical Office of Serbia, the tourist sitemost often
coincides territorially with the formal and planned boundaries of the settlement,
D. Gatari´ c (B)
Department of Human Geography, Faculty of Geography, University of Belgrade, Studentski trg
3/III, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
e-mail: gataricgaga@gmail.com
B. M. Ðerˇ can
Department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management, Faculty of Sciences, University of
Novi Sad, Trg Dositeja Obradovi´ ca 3, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia
e-mail: bojan.djercan@dgt.uns.ac.rs
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2021
A. Lubowiecki-Vikuk et al. (eds.), Handbook of Sustainable Development and Leisure
Services, World Sustainability Series, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59820-4_12
171