The Possibility of the Development of Bird Watching as a Specific Form of Tourism in the Deliblato Sands - Case Study

Abstract

During 2017, the Society for bird protection in Serbia has organized free trips for domestic tourists in the protected nature reserves in northern Serbia. Their main task was to educate tourists about rare bird species in Serbia and explore the possibility for the development of bird watching, as a specific form of tourism. Since these forms of tourism are not sufficiently developed on Serbian travel market, the main aim of this paper is to examine the motives of tourists who are taking trips. Results of the research should determine the manner in which domestic tourists, in economically underdeveloped countries like Serbia, are related to natural values and whether it is possible that specific forms of tourism become point of interest for domestic tourists and part of the tour operators offer.The aim of the paper is to present the opinions of a group of 54 tourists who visited The Special Nature Reserve Deliblato sands in June 2017 for the education and observation of rare species of birds. Research has shown that the dominant motives of tourists were related to their need for physical activity, recreation and leisure, rather than observing and photographing rare birds. The results of the survey of the descriptive statistics show that the majority of the respondents believe that the observation of birds and sustainable tourism in the Nature Reserve of the Deliblato sands will only experience its development.Research results can be useful to business entities in tourism with the aim of forming a tourist offer for domestic and foreign tourists as well as individuals, with the aim of developing awareness of the importance and importance of protected nature reserves and their preservation in the future. This is the not first study, but one of the pioneer research to examine the motives of traveling by domestic tourists in terms of specific forms of tourism development in Serbia.

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