MEASURING SPA TOURISM SUSTAINABILITY AND SEASONALITY IN SERBIA: CASE STUDY OF THE SPA CENTRES.

Nowadays, we are witnessing the ever-growing popularity of spa centres of which there are more than fifty active spas with thermal mineral springs and different capacities for tourists in the Republic of Serbia. Seasonality has a significant impact on the profitability of these destinations, even on sustainability, which is a decisive factor for the increasing number of visitors. The focus of the paper are the most notable Serbian spa centres, i.e. Vrnjačka Banja, Sokobanja, and Banja Koviljača. The Gini index and the Lorenz curve were used to assess the seasonality and imbalance in the monthly distribution of the number of tourists' overnight stays in the mentioned destinations for the period 2019-2023 influenced by COVID-19 virus pandemic. During this period, the institutional causes changed and had a significant influence on all aspects of tourism, including the seasonality. To reduce the influence of seasonality and increase the sustainability of selected resorts, it is important to combine different types of tourism, expand the services offered, and even create links to other nearest tourist centres (e.g. mountain centres). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]