The problem of rural development is present in a large number of countries. Rural areas today are characterized by negative trends of population migration to urban centers, depopulation, aging of the rural population, reduction of macro-economic indicators, etc. The aim of the chapter is to identify the variables that influence the current situation in the sector of rural tourism based on the theoretical analysis of the management of rural tourist destinations and the conducted empirical research on the perceptions of tourists as consumers and domestic stakeholders on the quality of tourist offers in rural destinations in Serbia and the potential offer of rural tourist destinations in Serbia to propose strategic directions for the development of rural destinations and to present a sustainable management model for improving the competitiveness of the rural tourist destinations.
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Until to day there is no dominant definition of competition (Cronje, F., D. at al. 2020, Alexandros & Metaxas, 2016, etc.). Porter and Van der Linde (1995, p.97) argued that competitiveness results from “superior productivity, either in terms of lower costs than rivals or the ability to offer products with superior values that justifies premium price.” This principle can be applied to the tourism industry even though tourism is not a physical product (Du Plessis et al., 2015).
Researching the competitiveness of tourist destinations it is noticeable that at the beginning of the 21st century there were numerous of authors who tried to give their own definitions, different concept of models tourist destination competitiveness, identified factors that influence the growth of competitiveness and analyzed different aspects of the competitiveness of tourist destinations (Enright and Newton 2004, Dwyer and Kim 2003, Ritchie and Crouch 2003, Heath 2003, Hassan 2000, etc.).
Retchie and Croach (2003) have so far given the most acceptable and comprehensive definition of the competitiveness of a tourist destination. According to them, “Essentially, what makes a destination competitive is the ability to increase tourist consumption in a way that animates tourists, so that they are satisfied with the offer and remain with positive experiences that they will remember for a long time and want to repeat. This must be done in a profitable manner. On the other hand, the well-being of the residents must be increased and natural and cultural resources must be preserved, so that they will be useful for future generations”.
Zengeni (2015) noted that measuring the competitiveness of a tourist destination can be done through subjective and objectively measurable variables. He distinguished two types of data, primary and secondary. He suggested quantifiable data as more precise and accurate. As he notes, the qualitatively measurable can be collected as “soft measurable” which are measured on the basis of a survey of tourists' attitudes and “hard”, as precisely determined by some relevant state institution. This kind of approach with the so-called hard” and “soft” data has The World Economic Forum when measuring the competitiveness of countries as tourist destinations through the Travel and Tourism competitiveness index, which it regularly publishes annually in its Report on the competitiveness of countries as tourist destinations.
In the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report (2019) it is shown which indicators are useful for measuring the sustainable development of tourism, which contributes to the tourist competitiveness of the destination. They are determined by the World Economic Forum and measured on a scale of 1 to 7, which is the most desirable outcome (Calderwood & Soshkin, 2019).