Loess profile »Surduk« in the gully between Novi Slankamen and StariSlankamen villages -currently the only law protected loess exposure in Serbia with fossil palaeosols ABSTRACT: This paper presents a preliminary geosite physical assessment model which has the potential to assist in the sustainable planning and management of natural heritage locations and their transformation into tourism destination. The methodology is based on several existing models and presented through two groups of values -main and additional, which are further divided into indicators and subindicators respectively. The resultant model is a graph that consists of nine fields, into which geosites can be classified as fitting into nine general areas of suitability for tourism in terms of their main (scientific/educational, aesthetic/scenic and protection as market appeal and conservation) and additional values (functional and tourism use as current stage of development). This could prove to be of great help to natural heritage protection and tourism managers, as they could assess the current state of a geosite and thence propose a future path for it.

In order to assess the rainfall erosivity in the Pannonian basin, several parameters which describe distribution, concentration and variability of precipitation were used, as well as 9 extreme precipitation indices. The precipitation data is obtained from the European Climate Assessment and Dataset project for the period 1961-2014, for 8 meteorological stations in northern Serbia, 5 in Hungary and 1 in eastern Croatia. The extreme values of precipitation were calculated following the indices developed by the ETCCDI. RclimDex software package was used for indices calculation. Based on statistical analysis and the calculated values, the results have been presented with Geographic Information System (GIS) to point out the most vulnerable parts of the Pannonian basin, with regard to pluvial erosion. This study presents the first result of combined rainfall erosivity and extreme precipitation indices for the investigated area. Results of PCI indicate presence of moderate precipitation concentration (mean value 11.6). Trend analysis of FI (mean value 22.7) and MFI (mean value 70.2) implies a shift from being largely in the low erosivity class, to being completely in the moderate erosivity class in the future, thus indicating an increase in rainfall erosivity for most of the investigated area (except in the northwestern parts). Furthermore, the observed precipitation extremes suggest that both the amount and the intensity of precipitation are increasing. The knowledge about the areas affected by strong soil erosion could lead to introducing effective measures in order to reduce it. Long term analysis of rainfall erosivity is a significant step concerning flood prevention, hazard mitigation, ecosystem services, land use change and agricultural production.

Hotels, like any other businesses in a given location, can be threatened by natural disasters, usually with significant and long-term consequences. The hotel industry is particularly vulnerable and exposed to the risk of property being physically damaged or completely destroyed. Apart from the physical damage, there is also an accompanying economic risk of the tourism sector suffering as tourists avoid areas affected by a disaster event. Therefore, hotels in the areas prone to natural disasters must ensure they are resilient enough to carry on through the turbulent period until regular business levels return. This study is based on survey responses of 63 hotel managers from the 12 European countries most frequently affected by natural disasters. The study relies on multi-capital predictor based approach and examines hotel resilience to natural disasters. It has been found that managers’ previous experience of a natural disaster, duration of managerial experience, and organizational category and size have a positive effect on hotel resilience. Moreover, hotels must anticipate such situations and continuously drill how to respond efficiently and adapt quickly in order to ensure business sustainability. Practical implications, study limitations and future research recommendations are also discussed.

Festivals and special events play a significant role in communities' lives because they provide important activities and spending outlets for both locals and visitors, and enhance the tourist image of local communities and their social cohesion. Backgrounds and contents of events are various, but the most attractive ones are those devoted to gastronomy or those that cherish tradition, customs, folklore and handicrafts. The municipalities of Sombor and Apatin are multiethnic regions with authentic folklore and food out of which numerous events of economic and entertainment content emerged. The authors of this study recognized the most significant ten. The research is aimed at determining the attitudes of the local population with regard to the organization, realization and economic importance of cultural events.

Anthropogenic influence on weather has been increasingly published and discussed in the last decades. Climate changes caused by inadvertent anthropogenic influence are well underway. Hail suppression, which has been proven to have no influence on weather, will be considered in the article. Even though hail suppression as scientifically ungrounded activity seemed to promise certain success several decades ago, it has spread over the whole territory of the Republic of Serbia after abundant experience, when many developed countries have given up on this activity. Reasons will be presented for the senselessness of hail suppression based on the latest research. By processing all hail data from the territory of Serbia in the period from 1967 to 2010, it was found out that the hail trend is rising which is in contrary to expectations and previous claims that hail suppression decreases hail frequency.