Possibilities of Turning Passive Rural Areas into Tourist Attractions through Attained Service Quality

Abstract

This paper gives an overview of the quality of tourism service in rural areas of the South Bačka District, one of the most economically developed parts of Serbia. The main objective of the research is to determine the correlation between the expected and perceived values of the quality of service by collecting and processing data. The modified SERVQUAL questionnaire was applied in the study, and all obtained data were analyzed in the SPSS software 23.00. As a result of the survey, it was found that tourists had significantly higher expectations than perceived service. The results obtained can serve for broader thematic research and contribute to the definition of appropriate corrective actions to improve the quality of tourism services in the selected rural area. Moreover, these are the key propositions to start an initiative for the improvement of tourism services in any undeveloped rural setting with a tourism offer. The results provide tourism organizers and local authorities with important visitors' perpceptions pertaining to the quality of rural tourism service.