Urban youth and protected areas - the south Banat region, Serbia

Abstract

In December 2021 and January 2022, the inhabitants of the City of Pančevo were surveyed using the random sampling method to find out to what extent they are aware of the existence of protected areas in their vicinity and how often they use them for outdoor trips and recreation. With the same aim, the inhabitants of the City of Vršac were also surveyed in mid-2022. This paper presents the results concerning the youth of these two cities. The survey covered 2.6% of the population between 15 and 24 years old in the City of Pančevo and 2.2% of the population between 15 and 24 years old in the City of Vršac. Less than half of the respondents have the habit of going to nature in their free time, and the main obstacles to this are the lack of free time and money, as well as the lack of direct public transport connections. In addition to the main research hypothesis, some other hypotheses were tested related to the similarities or differences between different groups of respondents in terms of the type of outdoor activities they engage in. The results obtained are important for planning future activities to preserve, improve and promote these valuable sites.

Keywords

• protected areas
• nature-based recreation
• excursion tourism
• youth
• south banat region