Cruising along the river Danube: Contemporary tourism trend in Serbia

Abstract

The subject of this paper are international cruises along the Pan-European Corridor VII (Danube Waterway). We tried to identify the structural properties of cruises along the Corridor VII, determine the scope and dynamics of cruises along the Corridor VII, define the problems and point to perspectives of cruises along the Corridor VII in Serbia. The research presented in this paper suggests that adequate valorization of the Danube along its entire navigable stream is a 'quick win' option for Serbia's tourism. The related research, also, suggests positive effects that the cruises have upon the economic and socio-cultural development of Serbia. In order for cruises along the Corridor VII to provide prosperity in the forthcoming period, it is necessary that this form of tourism be integrated into plans of tourism development of the entire Corridor VII and Serbia as a whole. Without adequate plans, the reconstruction of the existing and new infrastructure and increase in service quality, it is reasonable to expect a decline in the competitiveness of the Serbia's supply at the cruise market. The basic methods used while obtaining and processing data and analyzing the results are: field research, historical method, statistical procession, quantitative and qualitative content analyses, comparative method (Benchmark analysis etc.). A particular significance was given to the PESTEL analysis.

Danube Cruise Tourism as a Niche Product—An Overview of the Current Supply and Potential

“…Based on our review of the literature (Table 3), research on cruise tourism has focused primarily on ocean-going cruises e.g., [27][28][29][30][31]. In that case, the emphasis is mainly on environmental impacts, e.g., [27,31,32], and the economic performance of the industry, e.g., [33][34][35][36], and in many cases river cruise tourism is only mentioned in passing. Some European research analyses Danube cruise tourism in more detail, e.g., [33][34][35], based on which we show the specifics of the industry.…”

“…In that case, the emphasis is mainly on environmental impacts, e.g., [27,31,32], and the economic performance of the industry, e.g., [33][34][35][36], and in many cases river cruise tourism is only mentioned in passing. Some European research analyses Danube cruise tourism in more detail, e.g., [33][34][35], based on which we show the specifics of the industry. It is important to emphasise that data gathered from scientific articles were needed to supplement current industry reports [1,2,37,38] to refine current trends and performance.…”

“…The offering of the middle and lower Danube sections could meet the needs of the current target group, even if only this section is concerned by the packages. The articles from the region proved [35,42,47] that these countries abounds in authenticity, many historical, political, royal buildings and memorials of different religions (e.g., Belgrade (Bulgaria): St. Sava Temple, St. Michael s Cathedral, Crkva Svetog Marka, Residence of Princess Ljubica; Vidin (Bulgaria): Vidin Synagogue, Krastata Kazarma; Baba Vida Fortress) could be visited.…”

“…However, by today, the continuous innovation and growth of the tourism product with its unique offers, have been able to conquer new markets. The development of the European cruise industry began in 1992 with the opening of the 171 km long Rhine-Main-Danube Canal [30,34,35]. Before that, the two European water systems, the Rhine and the Danube, were both geographically and physically separated by a watershed of more than 400 m [30].…”

Analysing tourism movements along the Danube river based on geotagged Flickr photography

“…These multiple destinations may be in the same regionfor example Visegrád, Esztergom, Vác and Szentendre with Budapest, but there are interregional networks as well, connected by various means of transport, including the EuroVelo 6 bicycle route (Meschik 2012) and river cruise ships (Dragin, Jovičić, Lukić 2010). Tourism is traditionally measured from the supply sidemostly by the number of registered guest nights.…”