The perception of foreign tourists on the image of Serbia

Abstract

During the 90's, Serbia went through a difficult political and economic changes, which caused a radical decrease in the number of tourists, especially foreigners, as well as a negative perception of Serbia on the global tourist market. After 2000, with political and economic stabilization, Serbia enhanced opportunities for targeting tourists from European tourism market. Despite of its efforts, Serbia has been unable to consistently achieve its goals, which is reflected in the low income from tourism and a small share on the international tourism market. One of the consequences of this scenario might be attributed to Serbia's unfavorable image in the mind of world travelers. This study was conducted with the purpose of analyzing the relationship between destination image of Serbia, overall satisfaction of foreign visitors and their destination loyalty. The survey examines the image held by tourists who visited Serbia during 2007. The data is analyzed qualitatively. The research is applied to event, urban and cruising tourism, as the most attractive forms of tourist movements for foreign visitors.