No abstract

One of the key factors for success of sustainable tourism industry in all areas, including rural, is the support of community members. The paper aims to analyze how rural residents’ perceptions of sustainable tourism development (expressed through economic, social, environmental, and physical benefits) can affect residents’ intentions to support tourism. The second aim was to determine if attachment to the particular community and perceived quality of life can have influence on attitudes towards sustainable development of tourism in rural communities. Using a sample of 881 residents living in rural areas of the Republic of Serbia, the results highlighted that perceived values of tourism were important for evaluating how tourism is developed, if it is sustainable for a community, and how it affects quality of residents’ life. The study provided better understanding of factors that can have impact on residents’ attitudes in relation to tourism and highlighted the importance of paying attention to local community as significant player for tourism development, especially in those regions that want to boost its economy by developing sustainable tourism.

Rural tourism is often considered to be a factor in the development tendencies of rural space, a factor in the development of agriculture, as well as a factor in reducing rural depopulation. The primary aim of the research was to look at the problems in financing sustainable rural tourism in the case study of Serbia. The secondary one was to analyze the factors that may influence the self-financing capacity of rural tourism service providers. The findings confirmed the main hypothesis that financial resources are a significant limitation of the development of sustainable rural tourism. It was found that there is a high correlation between the amount of income generated and the structure of the workforce. The results verified that rural tourism entities were not making sufficient investments due to lack of financial resources, i.e., adequate financing modalities. It can be concluded thatin order to develop sustainable rural tourism, financial investments are needed, both at the level of service providers and at the macro level.