The impact of globalization on tourists' preferences in Serbia

Abstract

Globalization can simply be described as the movement of goods, ideas, values and people around the world. The globalization process has greatly affected all parts of the world economy, including tourism as an important and growing economic activity. Tourism development can be viewed in all dimensions of these processes: economic, social, cultural and even political. The great importance of tourism in the current global economy makes it a very popular research field, especially in the part of the economic dependency between tourism and globalization at the global or regional level. This paper shows how globalization influences tourists' individual decisions about 'buying' a destination. The analysis is based on an empirical study of Serbian tourists' preferences and activities. The paper points to the positive correlation of globalization and tourist preferences, to the correlation of tourist activity and socio-demographic characteristics and to what tourism trends are visible in the attitude of Serbian tourists.

Characteristics of Tourists and Frequency of Travel in Serbia

“…This is followed by people with above-average income, while people with below-average income are least likely to decide to travel. The results are partially in accordance with the group of research (Božović et al, 2022;Djeri et al, 2014;Stojiljković et al, 2019;Vuksanović et al, 2017) according to which people with the highest income travel most often because current research has shown that people with average income travel most often, more than those with below-average income, but still less than those with high income. It can be assumed that the reason for this is the fact that people with the highest income cannot allocate so much time for traveling and visiting tourist destinations due to business obligations, while people with below-average income do not have the conditions, that is, their finances prevent them from traveling.…”

“…A more recent research conducted in Serbia in June 2021 on a sample of 569 respondents showed that about 70% of tourists from Serbia choose abroad as a destination, mostly neighboring countries (Zeljković, 2022). As for the age categories, as many as 55% of tourists who travel abroad, are working age population from 19 to 60 years old, 22% are high school students, 17% of tourists are students, while only 6% of retired people travel abroad (Stojiljković et al, 2019). Some other socio-demographic characteristics of tourists seem to have an impact on the frequency of trips by tourists from Serbia, so people with higher income travel more often than those with lower income (Božović et al, 2022;Djeri et al, 2014;Mijatov et al, 2016;Stojiljković et al, 2019;Vuksanović et al, 2017).…”

“…As for the age categories, as many as 55% of tourists who travel abroad, are working age population from 19 to 60 years old, 22% are high school students, 17% of tourists are students, while only 6% of retired people travel abroad (Stojiljković et al, 2019). Some other socio-demographic characteristics of tourists seem to have an impact on the frequency of trips by tourists from Serbia, so people with higher income travel more often than those with lower income (Božović et al, 2022;Djeri et al, 2014;Mijatov et al, 2016;Stojiljković et al, 2019;Vuksanović et al, 2017). When it comes to gender, no statistically significant difference was obtained among tourists from Serbia in a sample of 673 respondents (Vuksanović, et al, 2017).…”