Tanja Armenski

Achieving destination competitiveness: an importance–performance analysis of Serbia

As a relatively new and under-researched tourism destination, Serbia provides an interesting context to assess destination competitiveness in conditions of global environmental changes and the additional challenges of transition from a socialist economy to a market-based economy. This article uses importance–performance analysis (IPA) to assess the importance of different activities to underpin tourism development in Serbia, as well as the industrys perceived performance in respect of these activities. There are a number of areas in which Serbian tourism industry considers itself to be underperforming in the implementation of activities to maintain destination competitiveness. This article analyses these results in detail using IPA as a diagnostic tool. Particular attention is paid to investigating the implications of the findings for both destination managers and private tourism operators in Serbia that can assist them to develop a focused action agenda to achieve and maintain destination competitive advantage. The approach can be used in other destinations to assess tourism ability to meet the challenges of global trends.

What Demotivates the Tourist? Constraining Factors of Nautical Tourism

ABSTRACT This article examines issues related to the constraining factors of nautical tourism based on a three-dimensional structure of constraints. With a higher level of respondents’ education, the significance of the intrapersonal and structural dimensions decreases. However, with the rise of monthly income, the significance of structural constraints decreases and the significance of interpersonal constraints marginally increases. For respondents who travel once a year, the interpersonal dimension of constraints is the most significant, while it is less significant for respondents that rarely travel or travel several times a year. Results of this research can be of use to nautical tourism-based managers and to all other stakeholders involved.

An importance-performance analysis of service quality in spa hotels

This paper identifies the results of a questionnaire designed to measure service quality in spa hotels in the Republic of Serbia. Service quality was measured with a model based on the original SERVQUAL model. Due to the fact that many previous research papers have shown that SERVQUAL is insufficient to identify and measure all determinants of service quality in hospitality, the original SERVQUAL model has been slightly changed. Namely, this modified version of SERVQUAL was adjusted to measure a large number of tangible and intangible elements of the service quality in spa hotels. Based on the research results, seven dimensions of the service quality were identified: assurance, food and benefits, empathy, entertainment, recreation facilities and wellness, responsiveness and reliability. After applying the modified SERVQUAL model, an Importance – Performance Analysis (IPA) was performed. By using an Importance – Performance Analysis (IPA), this paper examines the efficiency of hotel resources allocation and the possibility of designing management strategies to improve the quality of hotel service.

Tourism Destination Competitiveness-between Two Flags

Abstract The study aims to provide a better understanding of destination competitiveness and elements that affect competitive position of a tourism destination. The research is design as a comparative study of Slovenia and Serbia. For analysing a competitiveness of mentioned destinations, the Integrated model of destination competitiveness was used. The results showed that both destinations are considered to be more competitive in its natural, cultural, and created resources, but less competitive in the destination management and, according to the Integrated model, demand conditions. Based on these findings, relevant proposals are made in order to improve competitive positions of destinations.

Destination Competitiveness: Public and Private Sector Tourism Management in Serbia:

This study explores the underlying dimensions of destination competitiveness, analyzing the contributions of government and industry stakeholders in enhancing the competitive position of Serbia on the international tourism market. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were used to explore latent dimensionality of “destination competitiveness” among 48 competitiveness attributes evaluated by experts from the public and private sectors of Serbia’s tourism industry. Results show that Serbian competitiveness structure comprises five dimensions: risk management and adaptive environmental strategies, innovation and product development, planning for sustainable development, networking and community concern, and education for sustainability. The research identifies challenges and suggests areas where private and public linkages should be strengthened in order to enhance the competitiveness of Serbia’s tourism industry. Generically, the study advances our understanding of destination competitiveness, its multidimensional nature, and the implications for policy making.

Why should gender differences in hospitality really matter? A study of personnel’s service orientation and job satisfaction in hotels

In this article we examine the gender differences among hotel employees in service orientation and job satisfaction. To determine these differences, we used a service orientation scale (SOS), developed by Dienhart, Gregoire, Downey and Knight and a job satisfaction scale developed by Lytle. Our assumptions were that there would be significant gender differences in service orientation and job satisfaction. Our research proved factor structures of the two scales we used. Specifically, we showed gender differences in two of three factors, concerning service orientation (organisational support and customer focus), and no gender differences in job satisfaction. Our study revealed that organisational support is more important to men because they value more structured labour and service procedures than women (t = 2.21, df = 110, p = 0.03). In contrast, customer focus is more relevant to a women because it is more crucial to see satisfied guests, as well as having a good relationship with them (t = 2.07, df = 110, p = 0.04). It is of great importance for hotel management to have in mind that male and female employees respond and behave differently depending on the stimuli in the work environment and their satisfaction varies because of it.

Politics in the Balkan countryside: case study in Serbia

Abstract Thanks to the field observations conducted on the territory of central Serbia, it was noticed that people in rural environment, beside the optional conversations about weather conditions, most often talk about the politics. The aim of this work was to find out how many people who live in the countryside have the contact with the politics. Hypothesis were made within the communication with several examinees, but they were verified by the poll in which more than 100 persons took part. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, using T-test, one-factor analysis of ANOVA variance, and also they were checked by Post-hoc Tukey test. The work task was to find out if gender, age, as well as, professional and regional differences exist in relation to the countryside inhabitants considerations about certain political issues they have been talking about. The importance of this work is to discover whether the distance from urban environments and, life in nature can make a man less interested in and indifferent to the politics.

Consumer behaviour: influence of place of residence on the decision-making process when choosing a tourist destination

Regarding the previous literature on the decision-making process when choosing a destination, this article tries to contribute to current literature by surveying inhabitants from the Bačka region (Vojvodina/Serbia) with respect to the aspect of place of residence on the purchase decision-making process which involves five different phases: need awareness, search for information, estimation of alternatives, decision about purchasing a tourist product or service, feedback after purchasing and discrimination coefficient. The results show that place of residence strongly affects all phases of the decision-making process. The researchers also managed to address the most sensible and vulnerable indicator of the decision-making process when choosing a destination.

The Impact of Music Festivals on Local Communities and Their Quality of Life: Comparation of Serbia and Hungary

Music festivals are often seen as the key drivers of cities economy, and hence there is an increasing interest in the numerous benefits and costs associated with hosting them. The local governments and event organizers usually focus on the economic benefits, but the social impacts may have an even more profound effect upon the quality of life of local community. Moreover, quality of life research has been well explored in medicine, psychology, and the social sciences, although it has received very little attention within festival studies (Andereck KL, Nyaupane G, Development of a tourism and quality-of-life instrument. In: Budruk M, Phillips R (eds) Quality-of-life community indicators for parks, recreation and tourism management, vol 43. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 95–113, 2011). Therefore, the aim of this paper is to explore the social impacts of two famous European music festivals EXIT in Serbia and SZIGET in Hungary on their communities. The research was inspired by the previous work of Delamere (Development of a scale to measure local resident attitudes toward the social impact of community festivals. Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation, Edmonton, 1998, Event Manag 7:25–38, 2001) who developed the Festival Social Impact Attitude Scale (FSIAS). The results indicate that social impacts have two main dimensions, social benefits and social costs. In addition, residents perceived more social benefits than social costs of the festivals in both countries. The findings have practical implications for the local authority and festival management such as acknowledgement of residents’ opinion towards impacts of festivals on their quality of living and, consequently, their willingness to support the organization of the event that, in long term, influence overall sustainability of the festival.

Assessing the competitiveness of Matera and the Basilicata Region (Italy) ahead of the 2019 European Capital of Culture

Cities/regions are increasingly using events to aid social/economic development. The European Capital of Culture promotes urban management and economic production using culture to drive social legacies, job creation and civic repositioning. This paper aims to understand how Matera and Basilicata’s residents perceive destination competitiveness ahead of the 2019 European Capital of Culture. This paper adapts the Integrated Model of Destination Competitiveness and suggests a new determinant to understand resident perceptions. This paper contributes a new determinant to consider in competitiveness research: social conditions to improve local wellbeing. Two hundred respondents identify strengths/weaknesses of each competitiveness determinant. The results presented in this study display sample mean values and standard deviations for each indicator, as well as Wilcoxon test statistic (z). Competitive indicators are those showing means above 4.0. Descriptive and inferential analyses using SPSS 17 show strengths/weaknesses comparing Matera (city) and Basilicata (region) with similarities and differences outlined to consider both urban and regional perspectives and differences. For the data analysis, Wilcoxon paired signed rank test displays differences in the competitiveness factors between Matera and Basilicata. Wilcoxon (a nonparametric alternative to paired sample t-test) was performed since the data distribution was left skewed and Kolmogorov–Smirnov statistic indicates violation of normality assumption. Results show the majority of inherited, created and supporting resources are competitive, as well as image and social conditions; however, management and organisation needs improvement. It is essential that European Capital of Culture hosts have long-term competitive strategies in place to strengthen urban and regional capacity when delivering diverse cultural programmes, at present, and into the future. This study offers insight before the 2019 European Capital of Culture to inform planners and policymakers ahead of the event and offers consideration and discussion of social impacts and the need to gain such insight in competitiveness research going forward.