Health tourism in the function of developing rural destinations of Serbia

Abstract

Tourism has been identified as one of the key sectors of importance for rural areas in Serbia which make up a large part of its territory. Different forms of tourism can be developed in rural areas depending on the specific natural and anthropogenic resources. The aim of the paper is to show what are the key resources for the development of health tourism in rural destinations of Serbia. Health tourism is one of the current trends in the tourism market and there is a growing effort of different destinations to create the offer that would refer to healing, rehabilitation, recovery, surgery interventions, prevention. In rural areas of Serbia, the basis for the health tourism development is natural healing factors such as climate, flora and mineral waters. In addition, an important part of the health tourism offer is organic food and a stay in a natural environment.