The Transport Accessibility of Tourist Destinations in Serbian Iron Gates Region – Between Strategy and Reality

Abstract

The Iron Gates, the largest gorge of the Danube, is currently among the most prospective regions in Serbia. However, this is with a low-start position. Being a two-century borderland position between Serbia and Romania on the Danube, the region has been in a long-time isolation, which has caused deep socio-economic and demographic problems. This means that the Iron Gates region is not well-prepared for a new economic driver – tourism. Tourism blossom is generally related to easy accessibility by the Danube. Nevertheless, the loosening of national borders since 2000 has pushed the increase of tourists. Most of them visit the Iron Gates in organized tours by cruisers and tourist buses. This consequently focuses the visit of tourists to major attractions in the region and limits the possibility of the individual organization of their visit. Therefore, the tourism of the region flourishes only around the main attractions; the other ones, mostly smaller, cannot properly benefit from this emerging tourist interest. The aim of this research is the analysis of the tourist accessibility of the Iron Gates Region by those mass transport modes that freely open to prospective tourists who want to individually organize visit to region. They include just the regular lines of public buses. The research is organized in several steps. The first one is to collect and locate all tourist destinations that have been already enlisted in relevant spatial and strategic plans. Then, their spatial distribution is confronted with their transport accessibility by the mentioned mode. Finally, the obtained results from this comparison are given as recommendations to fulfil the gaps in the region connectivity regarding individual visits and tours. In that way, the final results can address the better organization of tourism development in the Iron Gates.