Rural tourism is seen as one of the aspects of sustainable economic growth and socio-cultural development of rural Serbia. During the Covid-19 pandemic, international tourist traffic declined, and tourism and hospitality as service activities suffered serious economic consequences. The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of pandemics on rural areas of Western Serbia, bearing in mind that the natural environment and rural areas have gained in importance as safer to live in. The research was conducted through an electronic questionnaire, by surveying the providers of catering services in this part of Serbia. The obtained results indicate a decline in the number of tourists (domestic and foreign) during the pandemic, but mostly positive attitudes of service providers regarding the prospects and sustainability of their business in the coming period. The data obtained in this research can be useful to local governments and tourism representatives in finding the best solutions to provide support to the bearers of the tourist offer of rural areas.
Seasonality of tourist demand imposes a number of issues related to the destination?s carrying capacity and business activities of the individual service providers in tourism. As one indicator of seasonal fluctuation of tourist demand, the Gini index is identified in order to establish monthly concentration of tourists. In this study, the Gini index was calculated for four spa tourism destinations in Serbia (Vrnjacka Banja, Sokobanja, Niska Banja, and Prolom Banja), in order to establish variability in the seasonality. The research took into consideration the period 2010-2019. Research results indicate that Niska Banja Spa has the lowest values of the Gini index, while Vrnjacka Banja Spa and Sokobanja Spa have the highest values, whereby no values are higher that .45 (mostly between .30 and .39). Given that the theoretically lowest value of the Gini index is 0 (smallest seasonal concentration) and the highest is 1 (biggest concentration), the selected spas still do not have particularly high degree of seasonal concentration of tourists. Possibilities for reduction of tourist demand seasonality are pointed out, given its impact on tourism planning and its economic effects.
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