Tourist event "Days of plum" at Blace: Demographic and geographic analysis of visitors

The event "Days of Plum - My Plum" at Blace has been one of 42 events dedicated to fruits and vegetables and one of three events dedicated to plum in Serbia. It has been held for nine consecutive years in the town situated in the wide Toplica valley at the foot of Jastrebac, where in a relatively favourable climate conditions there are good conditions for development of plum, so it has become a traditional event. This paper analyzes the results of a survey conducted during the last event, August 2011. The survey is used as methodical procedure because in relatively short time period a relatively large amount of information and data has been obtained. The survey includes 304 randomly selected respondents of different gender, age and educational structures. It was performed to examine the tourism market, attitudes and behaviour of visitors, as well as tourism promotion. In addition to the survey, the tourist valorisation of events is done in which the elements of geographic and economic groups of criteria are analyzed in order to investigate the tourism potential in terms of development of tourism as an economic sector that can contribute to the development of Blace as an underdeveloped area. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 47007]