The Deliblato Sands Special Nature Reserve (SNR) is located in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (Northern Serbia). The favorable position implies the proximity to large cities with which it has good traffic connections. Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, and other countries from the region represent a dispersive zone. The topic of this paper is the function that the SNR has in sustainable tourism development. The objective of this work is the analytical research of the available written data, as well as those obtained after the conducted survey. The basis of the research is to find out how and to what extent the SNR contributes to sustainable tourism development. The research was carried out by measuring the value of sustainable tourism indicators, and examining the attitudes of residents, visitors, and students about the current state of sustainable tourism and the importance of the SNR for future tourism development. Respondents were selected using a random sample method. The authors used qualitative and quantitative methodologies in the paper. This research examined the SNR sustainable development by measuring sustainability indicators and surveying 1884 respondents (714 residents, 620 visitors, and 550 students) about sustainable tourism in the SNR. The obtained data were analyzed and presented with the help of SPSS v. 21 software. The research results can be used to create national and international strategies for sustainable tourism development.

Research on the impact of protected areas on sustainable tourism development is undeniable. It means that protected areas should be significant tourism destinations for the success of sustainable tourism. The improvement of natural values, reduction of negative tourism effects on the area, strengthening of the residents’ role in tourism planning, development of the nature-based form of tourism, adoption of legal regulations, and the provision of economic benefits for both managers and residents are the main activities of sustainable tourism development. The areas of Kopački Rit Nature Park in Croatia and Gornje Podunavlje Special Nature Reserve in Vojvodina Province (Northern Serbia) are parts of the European river protected area called “The European Amazon”, and are protected as the Mura-Drava-Danube Transboundary UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The aim of the research is to obtain significant results regarding the attitudes and satisfaction of 1225 residents with sustainable tourism development using a quantitative methodology (PoS model), and SPSS analysis of the carried-out questionnaire. The respondents’ attitudes are related to the ecological, economic, sociocultural, and institutional sustainability of the protected area as a tourism destination. In addition, interviews were conducted with the managers of natural assets and experts in their tourist development. Answers from the interviews were used to confirm the obtained results.

In the northern part of Serbia, where the Autonomous Province (AP) of Vojvodina is located, a total of 27 important plant areas (IPAs) have been established. Within three selected IPAs, there are different biocenoses inhabited by endemic plant and animal species, which form a unique sensitive ecosystem. Furthermore, in these areas, there are wetlands and areas important for geodiversity maintenance. The three studied IPAs include the territory of special nature reserves of the same name: the Special Nature Reserve (SNR) Zasavica, the SNR Obedska Bara, and the SNR Koviljsko-Petrovaradinski Rit. In these selected protected areas, tourist activities are carried out at different levels of development and through various forms of tourism. This research used quantitative methodology to examine the degree of sustainable tourism development and its impact on residents. A total of 1134 respondents were surveyed using a questionnaire as an instrument. The obtained results indicate that the selected IPAs can be destinations for sustainable tourism development. Ecological and sociocultural dimensions of sustainability contribute to this type of tourism to the greatest extent. Analyzing the data related to the impact of sustainable tourism on the respondents’ satisfaction, we concluded that they feel a certain satisfaction with sustainable tourism in all three investigated protected areas. The survey results called attention to the possibility of developing nature-based forms of tourism, in which the residents’ role in tourism planning and development should be strengthened. All forms of tourism that are developed here should have the primary goal of protecting nature in these IPAs.

With low investment, countryside walking tourism contributes to the rapid recovery of rural tourism in the post-covid time. The research purpose is to examine factors that impact the interest of tourists in the state-supported countryside walking tourism. The sample consisted of 467 respondents from the general public. The SPSS software was used for processing data. The results indicated that safety, content, and price are the most influential factors. For females, slightly more important factors were related to the possibility of consuming authentic food and beverages, buying traditional handmade products, the inclusion of the local population, and the well-being of urban residents. A village, with authentic local houses and cuisine, and local tour guides, are the epicenter of countryside walking tourism. Embedding countryside walking tourism in sustainable rural tourism development policies is recommended. The research contributes to the integration between sustainable rural development and sustainable tourism development.

This chapter examines occupational safety as one of the factors of professional satisfaction and stress and in two studies – one conducted in regular conditions (sample of 320 respondents) and the other conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic (sample of 352 respondents). So, it was possible to compare the obtained results and conclude in what way the pandemic led to changes in those feelings among people employed in different sectors and different gender. The results show that the factor of occupational safety is the most important for persons employed in the private sector and those who own private business, while for the state employees it is in second place. The highest satisfaction is present in state employees, while the situation is completely opposite in persons employed in the private sector. Women generally have a lower sense of professional satisfaction, while differences in the level of stress after a pandemic disappeared.

This paper discusses the importance of starting point in the simplex algorithm. Three different methods for finding a basic feasible solution are compared throughout performed numerical test examples. We show that our two methods on the Netlib test problems have better performances than the classical algorithm for finding initial solution. The comparison of the introduced optimization softwares is based on the number of iterative steps and on the required CPU time. It is pointed out that on average it takes more iterations to determine the starting point than the number of iterations required by the simplex algorithm to find the optimal solution.