The Local Perception of Urban Safety in Open Public Spaces as a Parameter for Tourist Attractiveness in Historic Core of Smederevo, Serbia

Abstract

The concept of urban safety has been developed on the contemporary/broad feeling of human safety in open urban space, connected with the fear of crime and crime perception by ordinary people. In this constellation, the lack of urban safety is directly confronted with the always desired aspirations to make open urban spaces liveable, daily attractive and socially mixed. Indirectly, it can negatively influence on the other socio-economic conditions, which consequently downgrade extended urban areas. Therefore, urban safety is a demanding task for qualitative open public spaces in modern cities. In the case of the cities that are rich in cultural heritage, these aspirations are not just related to local residents, but to prospective visitors from cultural tourism sector, too. Therefore, urban places with abundant cultural heritage and the high level of safety have better prospects to boost cultural tourism. The aim of this paper is check the personal perception of urban safety in open public spaces in Smederevo, Serbia, and its role to upgrade the city attractiveness in cultural tourism. This sector is underdeveloped in the city today despite abundant cultural heritage in the historic core, with exceptionally valuable medieval Smederevo Fortress, and position of the city at the Danube, a major tourist route in Europe. It is preliminary assumed that the lack of urban safety in the open public spaces located close to cultural-heritage sites in Smederevo historic core contributes to their underuse by local people, which further minimise their tourist attractiveness. Hence, a survey based on the actions of crime prevention through urban design and planning is formed to examine the personal feeling of a safety in open public spaces among local people from Smederevo. The results of this survey imply how these spaces should be redesigned to be safe and more attractive for tourists thereof.