Measuring competitiveness has become one of the key factors for ensuring successful and sustainable tourism development, especially destination's current level of development and its growth and vitality. The main goal of this study was to analyze the applicability of the Ritchie and Crouch competitiveness model in order to assess tourism advantages and disadvantages of Vojvodina Province (Northern Serbia) as a rural tourism destination. Exactly 216 tourism stakeholders on the supply side that have the knowledge and/or experience relevant to this topic were interviewed. The results show that stakeholders believe that Vojvodina is not a competitive rural tourism destination, but some destination's advantages were identified, and they can be used for improving Vojvodina's position on rural tourism market. The research has shown that the key resources and the attractions of rural areas of Vojvodina are rated better than the macro and industry-related factors. In order that Vojvodina stands out in the competitive market, destination marketing is crucial and should be more closely focused on new products and market development.

Communities suffering from bankrupt industries often struggle in meeting the health needs of their population. In Romania, the older population still remains attached to the traditional spa tourism to meet their needs of relaxation and health cure. This paper uses Turda Salt Mine, a recently modernized site in Romania located in an area widely recognized for industrial pollution prior to '89. An exploratory, qualitative heuristic methodology was used to identify possible emerging patterns in the way post-communist local governments have engaged with the local social capital in designing sustainable integrated tourism planning and development.Findings suggest that the local population is neglected in the distribution of economic and health benefits, while carrying the environmental costs of increasing tourist numbers visiting the facility. In addition, there seems to be an overall pessimist view of the relationship between the local community and state representatives in terms of civil engagement and genuine interest to achieve one of the major objectives of the European investment: serve the public domain. The authors propose a model of integrated development based on four pillars (Academic, Health, Business and, Social, Cultural and Natural Heritage) to enhance the well-being of the local communitieswhere resources are available.