Perspectives of Development of SPA Tourism in Serbia

Serbia abounds in thermal mineral springs, which are not tourist valorized and used in the proper way. With more than 50 spas and more than 1000 springs, of which about 500 springs of cold and hot mineral water, as well as the abundance of natural gas and mineral mud, has a huge potential in spa tourism. Because of that, Serbia is so-called “Spa country”. According to the number of overnights and arrivals, spas are the leading tourist destinations in Serbia. The subject of this paper refers to the assessment of prospects for the development of spa tourism. The aim is, based on analysis of the characteristics of spa tourism in Europe, to indicate that the spa tourism in Serbia needs a new development concept in line with modern trends in the tourism market. Special attention will be dedicated to analysis of tourist traffic, considering the key factors for tourist valorization, comparison with contemporary trends in certain spa resorts in Europe, as well as defining the strategic direction of advancement of spa tourism in Serbia. At the end, it was concluded that Serbia, despite extremely favorable natural resources for the development of spa tourism, still counts as insufficient evolutionary destination, and this is of particular importance for the future improvement of this type of tourism and positioning spas as tourist destinations on the international tourism market, is precisely their transformation of specialized hospitals to modern spa centers and wellness tourism.