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The development of smart cities and destinations heavily relies on geospatial technologies and intelligence. Geospatial aspects encompass location-based data and tools and are of significant importance in governing smart tourism destinations. This paper investigates the geospatial elements involved in the development of smart tourism destinations, by analyzing smart projects implemented in Novi Sad, Serbia. The theoretical framework draws upon the fields of geoinformatics, urban planning, and smart city development. Research conducted in Novi Sad reveals that the majority of smart initiatives, solutions, projects, and practices are geospatially oriented. To enhance the governing of smart cities, the paper introduces a comprehensive and adaptable catalogue of smart projects, which is easily navigable and comprehensible.

Serbian spas, with their abundant geothermal springs and air qualities, are a significant natural resource for the country. Nowadays, tourism industry has become a predominant beneficiary attracting both leisure- and health-related visits. Nonetheless, the literature on current consumer behavior is devoid of a model that incorporates both motivating and constraining factors in the spa and wellness industry’s decision-making process. Serbia’s spa industry is still adjusting to the needs of the modern wellness visitor as a result of the country’s unique transitional path. The purpose of this study is to ascertain the role of incentive and restrictions in the destination selection process of spa visitors in Serbia, to gain insight into the development of wellness tourism in a particular sociocultural environment. The analytical hierarchy process was used to determine the relative relevance of the consumer behavior elements evaluated. The findings indicate that non-medical motivations are becoming more important, implying that demand is finally shifting toward the wellness idea, which was initially disrupted by the country’s delayed transformation. The findings have administrative ramifications, the most significant of which were price strategies and product diversification.

The aim of this paper is to develop a new perspective on urban tourist motivations and demotivation's by applying the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model in order to better understand how tourists make decisions about which destinations to visit. Authors discovered that most important factor within city break travel is internal force, followed by the external force and least important is demotivation. The paper argues that the results indicate the value of applying the AHP model to understand the role and importance both of push and pull factors and demotivators in urban tourism destination choice.

The practice of producing drone videos for hobby or commercial purposes has already created a vast amount of open and free video datasets. When these videos are properly authored, time-stamped and geo-referenced, they receive characteristics of volunteered geographic information (VGI). As alternative forms to user-generated content (UGC), these visually appealing footages attract significant attention, but their production faces different practical and motivational issues that could impose limitation on the value of this kind of VGI. In order to better understand volunteered geographic drone videos (VGDV) from the social media and VGI perspective we conceptualize and discuss prospects and problems that could be explored in further research. This paper contributes to the development of theory about aerial drone videos, exploration of aerial drone video UGC characteristics and to the applicability of drone videos in Digital Earth systems.

Social networking sites (SNS) became an indispensable part of people’s everyday life, but also a powerful tool of communication during urgent situations, such as during natural disasters. This is evidenced by a large number of research papers showing the use of SNS in difficult circumstances. Some of the ways of using are the dissemination of information about missing persons, warning on further possible consequences, safety checks during natural disasters, communication about places where the population can find help or a safe refuge. At the same time, SNS could increase awareness among the population about natural hazards. Unfortunately, most parts of the world have at least once been hit by a major natural disaster. People who manage such events have a big task in front of them, as they need to exploit the potential of SNS, but also to reduce the negative side, such as spreading inaccurate information in difficult moments. The paper presents ways of using SNS, and the positive and negative effects of these, before, during and after natural disasters.

The European Union (EU) is giving significant financial support to member states through Common agricultural policy (CAP). The problem is that the effects of EU funds are not presented in the way that would allow wide auditorium to understand their benefits. This is very important because it explains where the money collected from the EU citizens is spent. The goal of this paper is to present a model of visualisation by using geographic information system (GIS) as an effective tool for simple analysis of administrative EU measures, taking into consideration multiple factors at once. Results gained by using GIS show that there is only 2 of 27 EU countries that present significant positive correlation between invested funds and agricultural outputs.

Constantly changing nature of social network sites creates the need for continuous process of online benchmarking for identifying practices used by other parties. Facebook as the most used SNS still plays an increasingly important role as a marketing channel for destination marketing organizations (DMO). This paper explores basic characteristics of the official DMO Facebook Pages in order to quantify and present those characteristics in a regional context on the case of two travel markets (EU countries and U.S. states). The results show inconsistent practices in the EU and the USA. When comparing those two markets most similarities in practices are present in general usage of Facebook Pages, while indicative differences are recorded in terms of Page popularity, some posts' characteristics and most evidently in users' engagement. Understanding the Facebook usage practice under the regional spotlight can help DMOs and other service providers to evaluate their activities and if necessary to harmonize it to regional usage practice.

Spatial autocorrelation methodologies can be used to reveal patterns and temporal changes of different spatial variables, including tourism arrivals. The research adopts a GIS-based approach to spatially analyse tourist arrivals in Serbia, using Global Moran's I and Anselin's Local Moran's I statistics applied on the level of municipalities. To assess feasibility of this approach the article discusses spatial changes of tourist arrivals in order to identify potentially significant trends of interest for tourism development policy in Serbia. There is a significant spatial inequality in the distribution of tourism arrivals in Serbia that is not adequately addressed in tourism development plans. The results of global autocorrelation suggest the existence of low and decreasing spatial clustering for domestic tourist arrivals and high, relatively stable spatial clustering for international tourists. Local autocorrelation statistics revealed different of domestic and international tourism arrivals. In order to assess feasibility of this approach these results are discussed in their significance to tourism development policy in Serbia.

This paper examines temporal and spatial variability and trends of annual and seasonal precipitation in Slovenia and their relationship with three atmospheric circulation patterns represented by their indices: North Atlantic Oscillation index (NAOi), Mediterranean Oscillation index (MOi) andWestern Mediterranean Oscillation index (WeMOi). Data from 45 precipitation stations were used for the period 1963–2012.Mean annual precipitation varies from 736 mm in eastern Slovenia to 2,518 mm in northwestern Slovenia. A significant annual precipitation decrease (from −3% to −6% per decade) is observed in western Slovenia. Significant negative trends are observed in southwestern Slovenia in summer (from −4% to −10% per decade) and near the Adriatic coast in spring (from −6% to −10% per decade). Non-significant negative and positive trends are observed in winter and autumn, respectively. Results indicate significant correlations between winter precipitation and MOi (from −0.3 to −0.7), NAOi (from −0.3 to −0.6) andWeMOi (from 0.3 to 0.6). Significant We-MOi influence is observed in spring and autumn, while NAOi and MOi influence has not been detected. Annual precipitation and WeMOi are significantly correlated in central and eastern Slovenia, while significant NAOi and MOi influence is observed in western Slovenia (with the larger area covered by MOi influence).

Tourism development can strongly affect purpose of land use at the destination and in surrounding areas. However, the effects of development in tourism destination cannot be easily visible and proven. Sometimes indicators of tourism development do not show its significant impact, but the structural changes are occurring and they affect land use. The aim of this paper is to employ methodology for assessing effects of development on land-use changes in tourism destination. Proposed methodology includes combination of the use of publically available geographical data, geographical information systems and landscape metrics. The applicability of this approach has been investigated in test region of Čajetina municipality (south-western part of the Republic of Serbia), where tourism industry has flourished in last decades. Time series of maps (2000 and 2006) have been obtained from CORINE land cover project. Landscape metrics for area, size and density have been calculated for the entire test region and for tourism destination at patch and class levels. The results showed significant effects of development on land use changes in investigated tourism area comparing to its surroundings.

The idea of protecting geological heritage in Serbia occurred in late XIX and early XX century, but not until mid-90s began the systematic separation of ob¬jects, their evaluation and proposal for protection. As a country abound in natural resources and geographical diversity, Serbia represents an attractive destination for geotourism development. In the last few years have become available innovative techniques and tools supported by geographic information systems (GIS), which have left their mark in the presentation of geological data and geological heritage management. In this paper, in addition to theoretical considerations of geological terms such as geodiversity, geological heritage and geotourism, in a certain examples are analyzed the possibility of GIS technology application in geological and geomor¬phological research. Besides that, the emphasis is given on the application and sig¬nificance of geological resources portal in Serbia (GeoIISS). Portal represents the basis for the geological storage of data in digital form, a review of existing data and easier managing, as well as creating interactive queries. In this way, users have the possibil¬ity to conduct the analysis of spatial data, update data, maps, and display the results.

According to different relevant climate research water shortage hazard become increasingly frequent natural hazard across Serbia. In Serbia, especially in Vojvodina, drought is a natural hazard with increasing frequency of occurrence. Vojvodina is predominantly agricultural area with 11% of agricultural population. As such agricultural population is highly sensitive to natural hazards, especially to occurrence of drought which is typical for the territory of Vojvodina. Drought has influence on the environment and human activities, i.e. it has social and economic consequences, such as drinking water shortage or decline in crop yield. Therefore this paper has several aims. First goal is to explore socio demographic profiles and agricultural characteristic of agricultural population and stakeholders in research area. Secondly to examine farmers' attitudes to possible damage prevention and adaptive measures to climate change in the sector of agricultural production. Third goal is to analyze respondent's opinion toward drought prediction. Finally the study examines opinion of respondents on the role of government institutions in providing assistance and support to farmers and to agricultural development in the region. In depth semi structural interviewing were carried out. Results show lack of knowledge among respondents that water shortage can be precisely and in time predicted to help agriculture prepare and prevent possible draft damages. As the main problems in agriculture, the local agricultural population lists absence of strategic planning and management of agrarian policy, as well as absence of state support to farmers in agriculture development. Necessary assistance for alleviation of adverse drought consequences includes subsidies for irrigation, improvement and reconstruction of the existing irrigation systems; organized and planned state management of agrarian policy; creating precise methods of forecast of drought periods and timely informing agricultural population and agricultural firms.

The river Danube belongs to the Black Sea basin and it flows through ten European countries. It also flows through 35 larger cities including Novi Sad in Serbia. The water quality of the Danube is one of significant factors that are taken into consideration in evaluation of sustainability of the development of this region and it is controlled by complex anthropogenic activities and natural factors. With the assistance of correlation analysis, the paper studied the impact of natural factors such as water temperature, air temperature and precipitation rate on certain parameters indicating the water quality. Based on the results of the study it has been determined that natural factors affect changes in water quality throughout the year and that water temperature affects most the concentration of nitrogen oxide.

Water shortage and drought, as the most important hydro-climatic hazards, cause significant damages in case of most continents including SE Europe. An experimental field established in Bačka region (Vojvodina Autonomous Province, North Serbia) for the purpose of droughts/water shortage monitoring and remote sensing under ongoing IPA project 'Water shortage hazard and adaptive water management strategies in the Hungarian-Serbian cross-border region' (WAHASTRAT). The main objective of this project is to determine water shortage con­flicts on a local and regional level, and to reveal the frequency, extent and severity of future hydro-cli­matic hazards. The locations of eight measurement stations selected on the principle of representativeness in term of terrain configuration and soil cover. An area in which measurement stations were placed, covers about 1000 km2 (12% of total area of Bačka) and includes geomorphic units which reliable represent the relief of the whole Bačka region. Measurement stations were placed on 4 out of 5 most common soil types in the Bačka and Vojvodina: chernozem, alluvial soils, smonitza and saline and alkali soils. A measurement equipment system was constructed for the requirements of the WAHASTRAT project. The aim was to design a user-friendly and affordable IT solution, which would enable continuous re­mote monitoring of meteorological parameters and soil moisture. Independent solar-powered meas­urement stations are able to automatically measure air temperature, air humidity, wind speed, wind di­rection, precipitation and soil moisture.

Within urban zones land cover, being the expression of human activities, could be greatly modificated by changes in urban surfaces. Land cover modifications can be measured with mathematical metrics that quantify different aspects of landscape pattern. This research examines land cover patches by a set of landscape metrics for area and size. (Number of patches - NP, CA - Class area, Mean patch size - MPS, % - class ratio). The classification of land cover patches was based on Corine Land Cover 2006 (CLC2006) seamless vector data. The main goal of the research is to investigate the impact of artificial surfaces on Urban Heat Island (UHI) in the City of Novi Sad. The methodology is based on crossing of landscape and geographical approach to UHI research. UHI metrics of Novi Sad reveal strong human impact indicating direct proportional relation between presence of artificial surface areas and increased air temperatures.

Conference industry brings significant economic effects and that is one of the reasons why many destinations around the world strive to organize conferences, especially the international ones, which make bigger economic effects. According to the Strategy of tourism development of the Republic of Serbia (2005-2015), city break and business tourism are tourism products of high priority, which can provide short-term positioning of Novi Sad and Belgrade, at the first place, at the international tourism market, and contribute to the growth of tourism turnover of foreign travellers.Belgrade is the capital and the largest city in Serbia. It is very well equipped with necessary infrastructure for organizing business events such as conferences, congresses, meetings etc. Lately, the number of international business events in Serbia is increasing and the majority of those events are organized in Belgrade. However, there are very few surveys which are examining satisfaction of the conference attendees in Serbia. This topic is often ignored despite the fact that the attendees satisfaction is substantial for organizers and all other relevant stakeholders at host destination. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyze the satisfaction of the conference attendees, as they are final consumers of conference tourist product and their experience regarding both conference and host destination is thus essential to destination marketing and management organizations, conference centres, hotel managers, meeting planners and all other stakeholders involved in conference industry and tourism

The focus of this study was the loess plateau located in the Tamiš River valley in the central part of Banat region (northern Serbia). This morphologic unit has been formed by the loess accumulation process during the last two glacial periods. Digital elevation model (DEM) is based on the 1:25.000 scale topographic maps. Detailed geomorphologic and hypsometric maps are provided with selected cross sections. The borders of the plateau and spatial distribution of the micromorphology are precisely defined on DEM. The plateau rises gradually from the Upper Pleistocene terrace on the north and northwest, while to the east and south slopes and vertical bluffs were controlled by the lateral erosion process of surrounding channels and by the weathering process on the loess. The plateau has an atypical morphology characterized by reduced geomorphologic diversity. Loess topography is significantly flattened by human impact. Its micromorphology is characterised by shallow depressions and gullies.

Stara planina has great natural and anthropogenic potentials for tourism development that have not been recognized by tourism experts. Intensive state interest for tourism development started in 2006, when started building of the master plan for winter tourism development at Babin zub area. However, most of the central part of the mountain is part of Nature Park “Stara planina” that can be endangered by mass tourism development. Within this context, this paper researches potentials for ecotourism, as an alternative to future mass tourism development. Started projects of mass tourism development cannot be stopped, but also they do not have negative impacts to natural surroundings. The aim of this paper is to represent ecotourism as a “conscience”, a correction factor of mass tourism development.

The subject of this paper is Web promotion of tourism in Serbia. Promotion was understood as one of the four basic elements of marketing on the Web. The paper analyses the main forms and the extent of use of Web tourism promotion. The focus is on domain characteristics, quality of presentation, visibility and search engine rank, Internet promotion techniques and number of visitors. Structural observation was the main method used to analyze 260 travel and tourism related websites in Serbia. However, as Serbia is in the process of political and economic transition, it is still characterized by insufficient technical development of the Internet and its low level of utilization by the tourism industry. Based on the obtained results the extent of use of Web tourism promotion in Serbia and its forms were assessed.

The congress industry, as a part of business tourism sector, is globally recognized for its valuable economic contribution to tourism destinations. Regardless economic benefits, there are as well as numerous social, cultural and environmental benefits that congress industry brings to destinations. This is the reason why the congress industry is becoming one of the fastest growing sectors of tourism industry. At the same time, the congress destinations worldwide are competing in bidding international congresses. According to the Strategy of Tourism Development of the Republic of Serbia (2005), congress tourism is recognized as a quick win product that could contribute in a short period of 3 to 5 years to tourism development and image of Serbia. The cities of Belgrade, Novi Sad and Niš are identified as the congress destinations capable for hosting international congresses. Novi Sad, as administrative, economic, cultural, scientific and educational centre of the region of Vojvodina (northern part of Serbia) and known as 'town of fairs'(it has long tradition in organizing fairs - since 1923) has strong potential for smaller international congresses. In order to improve quality of 'congress' tourist product, provide stability of congress destination and congress centers, it is necessary to understand meeting planners' and congress attendees' levels of satisfaction and reaction to their experience in destination. In Serbia there is no research regarding mentioned items. The aim of this paper is to examine and analyze the perspective of the congress attendees, as they are final consumers of congress tourist product and their experience and behavioural intentions regarding Novi Sad is thus essential to destination marketing and management organizations, congress centre, hotel managers and meeting planners. .

During the history, the Danube valley was often devastated the northwest part of Bačka. However, the Danube river created also one of the most rich full wetland complexes in Serbia, Special Nature Reserve 'Gornje Pondunavlje' (Upper Danube). Hunting-ground 'Apatinski rit' is located within borders of SNR 'Gornje Podunavlje'. The people from this region constructed river embankments and other fortification objects to protect themselves from the floods, but still there are spacious areas that are not protected. In those areas, many floral and animal species (including game) face floods every year. High water level of the Danube River is the most dominant factor of change of habitat conditions in hunting ground 'Apatinski rit'. About 60% of the territory of 'Apatinski rit' are in the zone of floods. During the extreme high water level, game animals suffer serious losses. The purpose of this paper is to present possible application of geographic information system (GIS) in flood prediction in hunting-ground 'Apatinski rit' in order to reduce negative flood impacts. GIS technologies are used in many aspects of flood identification, prediction, and hazard mitigation. In this paper a 3D model is introduced to realize the flooded areas. The flooded areas are estimated based on the Danube water levels and topography of the surrounding terrain. The estimated flooded areas based on several water levels are shown in the paper. During the flood some parts of hunting ground are under water, and some higher courts remain dry. By using 3D model, all the isolated 'islands' with trapped game can be located during the floods, which is crucial for rescue intervention priorities and decision making during the flood.

Average rural household in Bačka mostly depend on agricultural activities. Modern society changes, especially changes in agriculture production imply need for diversification of business activities. Rural tourism can be important part of rural economy for some villages in Bačka. Fertile plain, Danube, Tisa and other smaller rivers, animals and games represent base of natural tourist attractions of rural tourism. However, main competitive advantages of Bačka are anthropogenic values. Traditional pannonian houses, baroques churches, numerous rural festivities, and "melting point" of different nationalities make good base for rural tourism development. Different combinations of rural attractions create several tourist experiences of this region: authentic tourist experience at "szalashes", particular tourist experience in villages, intensive tourist experience of rural events and manifestations, not authentic tourist experiences of pseudo rural attractions and complex tourist experience in rural areas. Regarding to emitive centers of rural tourist demand can be specified tree regions for development of rural tourism - region of Novi Sad, Subotica, and Sombor. Rural tourism can make a valuable contribution to rural economies, job creation, landscape conservation, retention of rural population, support to rural culture and tradition, nature conservation and other. At the same time, rural tourism is facing various limitations. With in this context, rural tourism planning has to include principles of sustainable development.