Abstract:The research deals with the sustainable development of the Serbian and Slovenian countryside, under the influence of tourism progress. The article identifies the main rural tourism competitiveness in Serbia and Slovenia, as one of the essential factors of rural development in both countries, analyzing the main contributions and making a series of proposals to guide the future research agenda. The aim of the paper is to clarify around one obviously defined objective-to point out the competitiveness of sustainable rural tourism in typical post-socialist settings. The data for this study were collected using the Integrated Model of Destination Competitiveness to observe Serbian and Slovenian competitiveness in tourism. Determinants were assessed using a survey evaluating four demanding factors and 20 supporting factors, based upon a five-point Likert Scale. The results indicated that the friendliness of residents towards visitors, easy communication between them, together with quality of infrastructure and health facilities show the highest level of statistical correlation. These are the main propositions to start an initiative for the authorities in local communities to actively participate in sustainable rural development. The findings provide tourism stakeholders with relevant respondents' perceptions pertaining to the tourism development in non-urban areas.

This study assessed local residents' attitudes in Serbia toward the impact of agritourism in their surroundings, using a Tourism Impact Attitude Scale (TIAS). Till now, analysis of the impact of tourism on the attitudes of residents in rural areas of Serbia and other Balkan transitional countries is insuffi ciently researched. The analyzed items of the TIAS were grouped into four factors: personal and community benefi ts (grouped eight items); negative impacts (seven items); concern for the local tourism development (fi ve items); and general opinion about tourism development (three items). The factors explain 47.47% of the variance. Furthermore, the results showed that residents consider the possibility to have more money to spend as the most important impact of tourism development. It is followed by the support of local authorities to promote tourism development. The third relevant issue for the residents is related with encouragement of tourism in the local community. These are the key propositions to start an initiative for the local communities to actively participate in agritourism development. The results provide residents, tourism organizers and local authorities with important community perceptions pertaining to the agritourism's impact.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of wine tourism on rural destination development. Consequently, this study attempts to develop contemporary insights on this under-researched area such as residents’ perceptions of wine tourism and its impact on the rural destination development. Design/methodology/approach In this study, the authors used a structured survey questionnaire from a random sample of 318 respondents based on the Fruška Gora Mountain in Serbia. Research also used structural equational modeling for empirical econometric testing in this data sample. This technique is appropriate for multivariate analysis. Findings Personal resident benefit associated with wineries is positively related to resident perceived economic impact (H1) R2=0.624; socio-cultural impact (H2) R2=0.685 and environmental impact (H3) R2=0.716 of wineries on local communities. Looking at the path diagram, the authors concluded that personal resident benefit associated with wineries is strongly related to resident perceived impact of wineries on local communities as regression weights are higher. Other findings relate those residents’ positive perceptions of wine tourism to increases in sales revenue, environmental protection, intrapersonal and interpersonal communication. Research limitations/implications The positive attitude of the local population is an essential link of development. Such understanding of residents’ perceptions optimizes destination management in the future and, more importantly, local sustainable development. This has high policy implications. Originality/value The present study contributes to the scientific circles by connecting perception research with wine tourism.

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Abstract:The research aimed at testing the combination of GAM/M-GAM models (Geosite Assessment Model/Modified Geosite Assessment Model) on selected geoheritage sites (geosites) of great scientific significance and geotourism potential. Testing was done on eight sites in the City of Belgrade (Serbian capital), an area which has significant potential for geotourism development in typical urban conditions. For this purpose, an assessment scale was used to highlight differences and similarities between main and additional values of the observed geosites. The modification of the original GAM model is based on the inclusion of visitors' opinions regarding the importance of indicators in the assessment process. The assessment was done by using both GAM/M-GAM and its results were analyzed and compared afterwards. The analysis has successfully identified locations and features of geosites that require action for maintaining or increasing their overall value and function. Moreover, the principal aim of the paper was to analyze the relevance of each subindicator for the assessment process by introducing the importance factor in the modified model. The authors were able to point out those values of principal importance for