**3. Study Area: Serbia**

Tourism in Serbia is recognized as one of the priority areas for development and an important task on its path towards European Union (EU) integration (Table 1).



Source: [63].

At the national level, tourism development is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Trade, Tourism, and Telecommunications, responsible for legal regulative measures, strategic planning and control. The main role in the marketing and promotion of tourist destinations at the national level is played by the National Tourist Organization. There are several regional tourist organizations, development agencies and tourist clusters having a direct role in tourism development and marketing. At the local level, such activities are under the control of municipal authorities and local tourist organizations. Overall, in the tourism planning and development process, a top-bottom approach is applied. This particularly concerns the issues related to infrastructure and capital investments. Table 2 presents a summarized framework of the institutional structure of tourism policymakers in Serbia.


**Table 2.** The institutional structure of tourism policymakers in Serbia.

General sustainability frameworks are set within The National Strategy on Sustainable Development [64] and the Strategy of Tourism Development 2016–2025 [65], while different issues, measures, and goals are being emphasized in various strategic documents. They provide the overall line with the general sustainability concept, directed towards the proper balance between the three core pillars. Commonly, the focus is placed on those issues concerning the proper use of natural resources, while recognizing solid institutional capacities for sustainable tourism development [66–68]. Many additional plans and projects further address the process of development of tourist destinations of Serbia (like regional plans, tourist destination master plans, and municipal development plans). Still, policymaking in Serbia's tourist sector is in a transitional phase generally due to the bureaucratic and autocratic system. Political decisions regarding sustainable tourism were mostly modeled on EU policies, based on various EU strategic frameworks and effective instruments (the Territorial Agenda of the European Union in 2007 [69], the European Union Strategy for Sustainable Development in 2006 [70], and the Agenda for Sustainable and Competitive European Tourism in 2007 [71], etc.). In the National Strategy of Sustainable Development [64], the fundamental concept of sustainable development is overgeneralized. Here, tourism is identified as an emerging sector with significant environmental impact but short of precise objectives or priority actions to make it more sustainable [72]. There have been frequent changes in legislation in all domains. However, these documents typically represent bare plans and political statements with little possibility for realization, commonly overusing and misunderstanding the concept of "sustainability". Even if the development of general and sectoral plans/strategies and programs has been intensified, there was a notable lack of inter-sectoral coordination and cooperation [72]. Often, national policies and strategic documents were elaborated by third parties, frequently engaging foreign experts unaware of pivotal national concerns and the current situation at destination levels. Thus, questions are raised about the realistic possibilities and the justifications for their practical implementation. This highlights a need for the creation of cooperative stakeholder networks in the policymaking process. As the tourism sector involves a vast

number of stakeholders, this should lead to a dialog and negotiations to develop commonly desirable policies [73,74].
