The position of Sokobanja on the Serbian tourism market

Abstract

In global terms, tourism is one of the most important economic activities. This is confirmed by the relevant international institutions’ data (The World Tourism Organization UNWTO, The World Economic Forum, The World Travel & Tourism Council), but also the national authorities (statistical institutes, tourism organizations). At the Serbian level, there is a growing number of destinations, where Sokobanja is one of the pillars of the tourism industry. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to point out the factors that have influenced the creation of supply and the position of Sokobanja in the tourist market. We used the available literature and statistics data and the survey was conducted during 2014, as an additional method. The paper is divided into five chapters. In the first part, the role of tourism on the global level is discussed. In the second part, the historical preconditions of Sokobanja tourism are pointed out, while the third and fourth part are related to characteristics of tourism turnover and the material basis of economic activity. In the final section, the relationship of the spa visitors towards tourism industry is discussed. The results pointed out several facts: spa tourism is one of the leading tourist products of Serbia, tourism turnover has seasonal characteristics with the domination of domestic guests, the natural resource base is present, but the infrastructure is obsolete and the offer is incompatible with market trends.