Purpose - This paper explores the economic indicators of rural destination development focused on tourism management, with a specific emphasis on four ethno villages in Western Serbia. Our study, ...conducted from May 2022 to May 2023, gauges the local community's perceptions of tourism's economic impacts, particularly on women's roles and overall quality of life. Methodology-Utilizing Chi-Square Tests, we assessed key economic dimensions such as employment, arts, agriculture, tourism, and investments. This methodological approach allows for a comprehensive examination of the multifaceted economic aspects relevant to rural destination development. Findings-The results of our study reveal positive influences on various economic dimensions, underscoring the transformative effects of rural tourism. Notably, observed economic aspects exhibit encouraging trends, emphasizing the potential for rural tourism to contribute positively to the economic landscape. Implications-Despite the positive outcomes, persistent gender imbalances underscore the need for targeted interventions aimed at enhancing women's participation in the local economy's development. This study contributes valuable insights into the nuanced relationship between rural tourism and economic advancement, emphasizing the imperative for inclusive strategies in tourism management and addressing gender disparities for comprehensive rural development.
To be considered sustainable, tourism in rural destinations should provide long-term economic benefits and have a push-up effect on the population’s determination to engage in sustainable tourism. ...Also, sustainable tourism must reduce the negative effects of business activities on the natural environment and improve the quality of life as well as the standard of living of the local population. In order to check the impact of sustainable tourism on the development of rural destinations, economic indicators of sustainability are most often used, as measurable indicators of sustainable development. In the paper, we examined the attitudes of 421 local residents using the TIAS scale, in 17 Vojvodina villages. Only those who declared that they are involved in the tourism economy were taken for further analysis. It was concluded that positive economic indicators of sustainable development are “wind in the sails” of the development of rural destinations, and that sustainable tourism is a desirable economic activity in the villages of Vojvodina to whom more and more residents are turning, especially women as of very sensitive category.
The paper is based on the assumption that quality service is a factor in achieving competitive advantage and positioning on the tourist market of agency business, and that quality is achieved through ...a series of relationships in the tourist-employee relationship. If the employee treats the tourist with respect, provides accurate and reliable information and exceeds the tourist's expectations with the service provided, he will get a loyal guest who will, based on the "word of mouth " system, spread positive experiences to the others, so they will also become clients of the agency. If we look at tourism as a "factory" of experiences, it is clear that for an extremely positive experience, it is necessary that every link in the series of providing a complex tourist service is of high quality. The first in a series of links is certainly the tourist agency. The modified SERVQUAL model led to the conclusion that tourists who traveled with the Asturs agency received adequate "value for money", that is, that the service provided by the agency was of better quality than expected.
In this paper, authors started from the hypothesis that innovations contribute to creativity and that children become more aware of in what way they can contribute to the development of rural areas. ...With children, play is important, and games that strengthen the imagination and encourage children to think for themselves are one of the best ways to encourage making future, strategic decisions. The challenge was to test the game “Tesla” on older school age children from 12 to 14 years old from rural areas. 138 children from five rural schools on Fruška Gora were examined. The results showed that children from rural areas, with the help of smart devices, played the game at the same level as children from any world metropolis. What’s more, through the game, the children showed awareness of the importance of the village, staying in the village and what is needed for the village to “live”.
PurposeThe starting premise of this study is that women's empowerment is the goal for self-realization and that the support that comes from local tourism stakeholders represents an adequate base. In ...many rural areas, women have established self-help groups (SHGs), which facilitate the interaction with a wide range of stakeholders. The objective of this paper is to investigate the effects of SHGs on female entrepreneurship and self-employment in tourism.Design/methodology/approachTo examine the research question, this study adopted a quantitative research that included a sample of 513 women in a less-advanced rural area in Serbia. For the data analysis, the generalized linear regression model (GLM) was used.FindingsAccording to the results, self-employment is the leading goal of women's empowerment.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitation in the research and the authors’ suggestion for future research is to increase the sample size of female respondents, so examination of their attitudes and role in the travel business in their local settings might reach higher significance. The second issue that the authors would like to point out is a highly local character of our study, so the future research should involve other rural areas in the country and from abroad (e.g. similar undeveloped countryside with noticeable, active women's role in local entrepreneurship).Practical implicationsThe most important practical implications of this paper are twofold: (1) the results of the research have shown that the tourist potential of rural areas can be enhanced through local tourism stakeholders' support; (2) women without professional interest or jobs in rural areas, especially in the areas where the population is traditionally dominated by men (husband/brother/father), have a chance to earn and to be economically more independent. This research can affect future studies to investigate other aspects of empowerment depending on the difference of regions, from one side, and also alternative opportunities for tourism and local development in less-advanced rural areas, from another side.Originality/valueThe study analyzes the tourism potential of the rural areas (which are less advanced and mostly very poor in developing countries, such as Serbia). In this case, there are opportunities to increase employment, social inclusion of women, development of new tourism strategies, implementation of destination marketing, etc. Moreover, it contributes to future research in the field of stakeholders in tourism strategies.
If we look at the energy as something that is all around us, then it is clear that energy as such can be used even for the purpose of tourism. Sofia's springs is the dry spa which is located in the ...national park and the fields with the strongest positive radiation in the world are the phenomenon. Whether this is a placebo effect or a real effect of bio energy circles, this location has the potential to attract "health tourists" from all over the world. The research took the whole 7 years, during which we analyzed motives and views of 687 foreign visitors of these springs who came to the springs by bicycles from 6 European countries. The analysis showed that the visitors believe that the dry spa helps them in solving health problems, including Covid-19, which invites medical science to examine it in detail and confirm or reject it. Anyways, that represents a backbone of health tourism development and can directly influence the rural destination development.
Forest fires that occurred in Portugal on June 18, 2017, caused several tens of human casualties. The cause of their emergence, as well as many others that occurred in western Europe at the same time ...remained unknown. Taking into account consequences, including loss of human lives and endangerment of ecosystem sustainability, discovering of the forest fires causes is the very significant question. The heliocentric hypothesis has indirectly been tested, according to which charged particles are a possible cause of forest fires. We must point out that it was not possible to verify whether in this specific case the particles by reaching the ground and burning the plant mass create the initial phase of the formation of the flame. Therefore, we have tried to determine whether during the critical period, i. e. from June 15-19 there is a certain statistical connection between certain parameters of the solar wind and meteorological elements. Based on the hourly values of the charged particles flow, a correlation analysis was performed with hourly values of individual meteorological elements including time lag at Monte Real station. The application of the Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System models has shown that there is a high degree of connection between the flow of protons and the analyzed meteorological elements in Portugal. However, further verification of this hypothesis requires further laboratory testing.
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In order to empower and become independent in their tending, women have established the associations (the associations for the empowerment of women - AEW). Women in these associations have becoming ...aware that, if they had performed united, they could radically change their personal lives, their families' lives, as well as of the communities they have lived in. Therefore, the associations can play a role of giving a woman "a chance" to be independent both in the economic and social sense. This paper aims to show effects of the women's empowerment in rural areas, i.e. the influence of the AEW on the female entrepreneurship and self-employment. Empirical research was done on a free sample of 420 women from 10 villages in the Serbian enclave Sirinicka Zupa in Kosovo and Metohija by the personal communication technique, i.e. using a questionnaire. The results analysis shows a unique formula for the empowerment of women: self-employment as a goal for the women's empowerment depends directly from the motive for starting a business (25%), business environment (20.24%), as well as the support of AEW (54.76%).
Organizations that hope to achieve a competitive advantage through employee engagement will be most successful by incorporating and including employee engagement in the performance management ...process. Therefore, essence of the performance management must to be convergence to employees and establish communication with each one. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between employee engagement (assessment of employee competencies and preferences of the engagement mechanisms), and performance management process in rural destinations. In this paper, the assumption is that the employee are more engaged if they feels belonging to the organization and see the value of their work and that this can be achieved through rewards and recognition system and effective communication channels. The research was conducted on 79 employeed in the Fruška Gora National Park, Serbia.
The Fruška Gora National Park has one of the biggest sport and recreational potentials in Vojvodina, Serbia. Because of its favorable natural and geographical features Fruška Gora National Park. ...Since sports and recreational tourism is of growing importance in the tourism industry, the evaluation method to create a high quality tourism product becomes inevitable. Empirical research conducted on a sample of 304 respondents was aimed at showing the existing potentials of Fruška Gora National Park related to sport and recreational tourism. The interviews with experts from the Provincial Secretariat for Environmental Protection, the National Park and the Cycling Association of Vojvodina helped the SWOT analysis of sport and recreational tourism on Fruška Gora National Park.
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