Pro-poor tourism for the purpose of rural environment development

Abstract

The subject of the research in this paper is the development of entrepreneurship based on Pro-poor tourism principles in rural destinations. The aim of the research is to project development models of entrepreneurship based on Pro-poor tourism in the rural environments in Serbia. General analytical-synthetic research method has been applied, in the span of bibliographic-speculative, to empirical approach. The poverty of rural population is a heated problem in many countries, Serbia included. Developing entrepreneurship in the field of tourism stands out as one of the most efficient ways to solve this problem. Focusing on the just allocation of material and immaterial goods in a local community area includes adopting the concept of tourism and entrepreneurship development based on Pro-poor tourism. This includes the development of micro type businesses, small and family companies, the development of tourism business through diversification of products and activities traditional for the households in rural areas, and including the development principle that focuses on the interests of the poorest members of the local community. For this reason, reliance of local resources with promoting local capacities and increasing the participation level of the local community in developmental activities is the key of success of Pro-poor strategies.

Keywords

• pro-poor tourism
• rural development
• rural destination
• Serbia