Konkurentnost Vojvodine kao destinacije ruralnog turizma / Competitiveness of Vojvodina as a rural tourism destination

Global competition in the tourism industry has become a challenge for many countries that are competing to become a desirable tourist destination, so understanding the factors that contribute to the competitiveness of destinations is essential to maintain the current level of development of tourist destination, its growth and vitality. Therefore, measurement of competitiveness can be considered as a key factor in ensuring the success of tourist destinations. The subject of this dissertation is to identify and determine the significance of the factors that may have an impact on the competitiveness of rural tourism in Vojvodina. In the paper, survey research is used in order to investigate attitudes of stakeholders important for rural tourism development on the supply side in Vojvodina and Hungary (direct service providers in rural tourism, employees of tourist organizations and travel agencies, employees of municipal and provincial departments, employees of ministries, teaching staff at universities). The main objective of the research is to determine how much Vojvodina is a competitive destination for rural tourism, or to assess the current state of all the factors that affect/could affect the competitiveness of Vojvodina. The scientific contribution of the doctoral dissertation research is reflected in the identification of determinants that are important for the competitiveness of rural tourism destination. As a result, the model will be developed to measure the competitiveness of rural tourism destinations, which will be applicable to Vojvodina, the province that has the capacity to develop rural tourism, or any other destination of rural tourism.