Serbia: Survey on Risk Perception in Tourism

I've gotten a few reports. No really, Zach is staff, and we do allow this on occasion when pre-approved. There is precedent.

Well, that was interesting.

So the first page of the survey involves a potential visitor’s awareness and concerns about the collapse of a canopy at a railway station in 2024 that killed 16, and the ensuing protests that resulted in clashes with the police.

The second page requires logging in to Google to continue, what seems to me to be an additional step, requiring more involvement to provide more input.

So, who here was aware of the station canopy collapse, and did it affect plans to visit Serbia? With all the Americans concerned earlier this year about whether a European country would willingly receive them as visitors, here’s a country that’s concerned whether people are concerned about visiting.

We’ve been following this story since last year when the awning collapsed. My husband reads and watches Croatian news everyday and it’s been reported and updated frequently. We have many Serbian friends who visit family a few times a year. Even they told us not to visit them this October cause if the problems.
I’ll take the survey on my desktop later.

I got past the first page focusing solely on the bus station collapse but I couldn't complete the remainder of the questionnaire because the following questions concerned my thoughts about various aspects of my visit to Serbia. However, I've never been to Serbia so couldn't answer the questions despite the questionnaire being aimed at, amongst others, potential first time visitors to Serbia. A poorly thought out questionnaire.

It appears that it might be biased to attribute blame in a drop in tourism on one factor. Then the psychological questions might be to catagorize those who disagree with the premise. I dont want to return to Serbia and a lot of folks dont want to go to Serbia, and it has nothing to do with the structural failure or the protests.

But it was interesting and I didnt mind doing it.

There's only so much time I'm willing to spend on unreimbursed surveys. A couple of pages in it became obvious this one would exceed my limit. Kind of a shame, since I really enjoyed my brief stay in Belgrade.

I dont want to return to Serbia and a lot of folks dont want to go to Serbia, and it has nothing to do with the structural failure or the protests.

Exactly this. Whilst I am aware of the tragic incident involving the bus stop it is not the reason for me not wanting to visit Serbia. The primary reason for me is the wide support for Russia and it's invasion of Ukraine. I would suggest that potential visitors to Serbia may consider a public support figure of over 70% in favour of Russia over Ukraine to be more of a concern that the potential risk of collapsing bus shelters. Perhaps the author may like to consider this aspect.

Yes, the protesting going on in Belgrade after the collapse of the canopy is what had me cancel my 28 nights there and switched to Sarajevo. Since I was staying a few blocks from the town center where the protesting was routinely going on, I just did not want to deal with it or the crowds.

I agree with JC. The survey was badly organized. I also could not proceed past the first page because all questions were mandatory; even if they were irrelevant to the survey taker.

I certainly don't mind taking surveys when it comes to topics I am interested in, but I do feel that better preparation was needed on this one.

I think they knew exactly what they were doing. But its a guess. Would love to see the final report.

I also took a quick run at the survey but quickly bailed because it seemed clear it was not well done (just from the standpoint of a survey needing to be properly set up in order to be at all useful). This one is not.

Like others above, my concerns about visiting Serbia have nothing to do with worries about public infrastructure collapsing.

It's about the fascism.

Dear all,

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who took the time to complete our survey — your participation is truly appreciated.
We’re also very grateful for your thoughtful suggestions regarding the layout and design of the questionnaire. These comments are valuable to us and will be carefully considered in the development of future research.
We will gladly share the research findings with you once the results are published in a scientific journal. We hope they will be of interest and perhaps even useful in your future travels.

Warm regards,
Dragana Mitric Acimovic
Assistant Professor,
Faculty of Organizational Studies “Eduka”
Belgrade, Serbia

Well thank you for that. We will watch for your post on the forum with a link to the publication.

Dr. Mitrić-Aćimović, thank you for your response. As mentioned, I would have liked to complete the survey, but many of the questions required mandatory responses, which I could not answer because I have not been to Serbia.

Good luck with your survey, and I would appreciate hearing more about this in the future.

We were in Novi Sad 3 weeks before the collapse, so when it came up in news feeds, I did pay attention. It was a stop on a river cruise, and a nice visit. Impressed by the promenade along the river, with a walking lane, bike lane, and padded running section.

As to deterring future travel, although it wasn't Serbia, I went to Slovenia/Croatia for 2 weeks in April, with my 2 year old granddaughter, with no concerns.

I may be an outlier though, as we were stationed in Germany in the 80's.