Visitors’ centers: New coordinates of Serbian rural areas improvement

Abstract

Visitor centres are mandatorily info-promotional facilities, often focused on service and accommodation, and less often on research and education, and which should satisfy different needs of a specific natural or an artificially created area by means of a narrower or wider range of different activities. They are very important as special purpose points for development of a tourist offer in a specific wider area, but also as marketing and promotional markers for popularization and attractiveness, i.e. ‘new recognisability’ of individual locations in a narrower spatial sense. As modern benchmarks, they can use their functionality and design symbolism to become important generators of development and increase the number of visits to rural areas, where specific sites are most often located. This paper examines these specific functionally designed facilities from the viewpoint of potential typological divisions, empirical patterns, i.e. the overview of needs for their individual aspects in rural spaces and areas of Serbia, while taking into consideration the environment and experience they are to present to users.

Vizitorski centri su obavezno informativno - promotivne, često uslužno - smeštajne, a ređe istraživačko - edukativne celine, koje svojim manjim ili većim skupom sadržaja treba da zadovolje različite potrebe određenog specifičnog prirodnog ili stvorenog područja. Veoma su bitni kao punktovi posebne namene, za razvoj mreže turističke ponude određenog šireg područja, ali i kao marketinško - promotivni markeri za popularizaciju i privlačnost, odnosno “novu prepoznatljivost” pojedinih lokaliteta u užem prostornom smislu. Kao moderni reperi, svojom funkcionalnošću i oblikovnom simbolikom mogu biti bitan generator razvoja i povećane posećenosti ruralnih područja, u kojima se specifični lokaliteti najčešće i nalaze. U radu se analiziraju ovi specifični funkcionalno - oblikovni sadržaji, sa gledišta mogućih tipoloških podela, iskustvenih obrazaca, odnosno sagledavanja potreba za pojedinim njihovim vidovima u ruralnim prostorima i arealima Srbije, a u zavisnosti od okruženja i doživljaja koje treba da predstave korisnicima.