Development of rural tourism in Slovenia – potential guidelines for Serbia

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present and analyze development of rural tourism in the Republic of Slovenia. This analysis is relevant due to the fact that experience from Slovenia can be applied to Serbia, having in mind that both countries have agricultural households which share similar characteristics and needs. An average agriculture household in Slovenia covers the size of 6.5 hectares of arable land. Slovenia is the country where the development of rural tourism enabled additional income for agricultural households, growth of rural economies and putting an end to demographic devastation of the rural areas. Taking into account that average size of agricultural households in Serbia is rather small, rural tourism development emerges both as a necessity and perspective. Research methods used in this paper are analytical and synthetic, historical and comparative. The author concludes that rural tourism development in the Republic of Serbia requires strategic and financial support of the state, further active applying to EU funding, maximizing the rural tourism profit, along with merging and specialization of the rural tourism entities.