Sustainable tourism development indicators for mountain destinations in the Republic of Serbia

Abstract

Uncontrolled development of mass tourism has led to the over-exploitation of tourism resources in a short period of time. By insisting solely on the economic effects of development, tourism has irreversibly degraded and to a certain extent ‘exhausted’ resources and attractiveness of destinations, thereby leading to their stagnation, and ultimately, to a decline in tourism activities in many destinations. By introducing the concept of sustainable tourism development, tourism analysis extends to other effects that tourism development produces in a given area, primarily the environmental, social and cultural ones. The paper analyses the achieved level of development of tourism in mountain destinations in the Republic of Serbia by using the comparative indicators of sustainable tourism applied in the EU countries. The results of the research indicate that the development of tourism in mountain destinations of the Republic of Serbia does not fully comply with sustainable development. In this respect, the paper provides specific recommendations on how to make tourism sustainable and therefore implement acceptable long-term concept of development of mountain destinations.