of rUral Serbia

INTRODUCTION
The United Nations Millennium Achievement Goals Fund (MDGF) project in Serbia – ”Sustainable
Tourism for Rural Development“ was launched in 2010 and completed in December 2012, as planned.
Its main objective was to support the diversification of the rural economy of Serbia through tourism
and related industries. The project was implemented through the joint collaboration and partnership
of five UN agencies (UNDP, UNEP, FAO, UNICEF and UNWTO) and three national partner institutions:
Ministry of Finance and Economy (MFE), Ministry of Agriculture, Trade, Forestry and Water
Management, and National Tourism Organisation of Serbia (NTOS).
After formulating a Master Plan for Sustainable Rural Tourism Development in Serbia which was
approved in November 2011 by the Government of the Republic of Serbia, UNWTO and NTOS, under
the overall coordination of the MFE, jointly collaborated in other project activities including the
implementation of a grants scheme aimed at supporting rural small and medium enterprises in
improving the overall quality of their rural tourism services and facilities, improving their overall
competitiveness and, stimulating the development of rural tourism clusters.
Based on the successful partnership in the implementation of the grants scheme and other project
activities in which NTOS collaborated with other UN partners including training programmes,
it was decided to provide further technical assistance to NTOS to prepare a brochure which could
capitalise on the work achieved and showcase the new developments of rural tourism in Serbia. In
this regard, UNWTO provided technical assistance to NTOS to formulate a set of quality guidelines
on the selection criteria for best practice in rural accommodation service and standards in order to
support NTOS in the identification and selection of Serbian rural tourism best practices for inclusion
in a promotional brochure.
The objective of this brochure is to create awareness of the four rural tourism marketing regions of
South Banat, Lower Danube, Central Serbia and Eastern Serbia and the greater rural tourism offering
of Serbia. The guidelines cover the requirements for participating in the brochure as well as the
development of the selection and verification process. The selection process was developed based
on the following criteria:
•Quality of services
•Quality of the welcome
•Enhancement and use of local produce
•Promotion of the area
UNWTO would like to acknowledge and thank all the stakeholders who have participated in the
development of this brochure. A special thanks is extended to the leading partner of the project –
the National Tourism Organization of Serbia (NTOS) for their efforts and inputs strongly supported
by high level of motivation and engagement of local tourism organisations as well as the owners
of rural households who managed to combine the best of their offer, featuring tradition and up-todate
holiday needs.
Introduction
South Banat
Lower Danube
Eastern Serbia
Central Serbia
Contacts
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Dr. Harsh Varma
Director – Technical Cooperation and Services
World Tourism Organization
Gordana Plamenac
CEO/Managing Director
National Tourism Organisation of Serbia
www.serbia.travel