POSSIBILITIES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF ECOTOURISM IN PROTECTED AREAS OF WESTERN SERBIA

Sustainable tourism is an important element of modern tourism, which are strictly controlled by the impact of tourism on the environment. Balanced ecological, economic and sociocultural components of tourism are therefore more frequently mentioned in the programs and strategies of tourism development. Sustainable tourism is particularly applicable to the development of tourism in the category of protected natural areas. These natural systems (national parks, nature parks, nature reserves and natural monuments) are all interesting areas for various segments of the tourist. Typically, this is ecotourism -a modern form of tourism in which through education, volunteering, learning about nature, we help protect and preserve nature. Tourism development in protected natural areas is particularly sensitive, and as such it involves the determination of carrying capacity, limits of acceptable changes, environmental impact assessment, tourism zoning and designing codes of ethics that would help tourists to coordinate their activities with the values of the environment