Application of EU comparative tourism sustainability indicators: The City of Uzice case study (Serbia)

Continuous and mass tourism development resulted in the need of putting this activity under sustainable development, in order to provide adequate usage of tourist potentials for meeting the current and future travel needs. Sustainable tourism is a form of tourism that contributes economic development of local communities with taking care of permanent environment protection. The subject of this research is tourism on the territory of the City of Užice, analyzed through the application of EU five group comparative indicators, in order to determine the current position of sustainability. The research also covered the following tourist places: Mokra Gora and Užice in Southwestern Serbia. Method of analysis and synthesis, mathematical-statistical method and comparative method were used. The collected data were analyzed by using the method of descriptive statistics. The research results show unequal tourism development in the City of Užice, precisely to the fact that tourism sustainability in tourist places (Mokra Gora and Užice) is different compared to the destination itself. Beside the contribution to the theory of sustainable tourism development, the results can also have a practical application within Užice tourist organizations, which may have a significant impact on destination sustainability in the future.