Welcome Note

Dear participants of the forthcoming Conference on Sustainable Tourism, Entrepreneurship and Local Economic Development, It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the European Youth Capital and the European Capital of Culture – the City of Novi Sad, and to the ninth EIAT conference, which is this year organised with the support of the Provincial government, Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), National Tourist Organisation of Serbia, TouristOrganisation of Vojvodina, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia, Faculty of Economics inBelgrade and Business Association of Hotel and Restaurant Industry – Serbia (HORES). Nowadays trends in tourism are undergoing important quantitative and qualitative changes,which are primarily manifested in the dynamic growth of the turnover in tourism, the globalisationof the tourist market, the creation of new and more flexible modes of the provision and use ofservices. Economic liberalisation and stimulative fiscal measures have had a positive influence onthe economic growth in tourism, but at the same time an ever increasing attention is paid to theecological, social, ethnic and cultural effects of tourism.

Year in, year out, there is a bigger and bigger problem in tourism – the lack of the qualified, qualitywork force, which is the result of the insufficient coordination between the academia and theindustry with the direction of the public sector. The idea of the retraining and further training of theunemployed in order to channel them into tourism, as well as giving an incentive to entrepreneurshipin tourism and the inclusion of the local population in various initiatives related to tourism mightbe the solution to the problem how to raise the attractiveness of a destination for a longer period of time.The conference on sustainable tourism, entrepreneurship and local economic develeopmentaims to promote the initiatives of local communities in the light of the development of the touristproducts, their evaluation and the creation of a model for further exploitation through initiativesacross the borders. I especially wish to thank the partners, panelists, and participants who have given or are about togive their contributions to another well-organised EIAT, which is to be held at the Rector’s officebuilding of the University of Novi Sad

Kind regards,

Milan Ćulić, PhD
President of the Managing Board
The Center for Tourism Research and Studies