Distributing tourism and travel services in Serbia - Traditional travel agencies/tour operators vs. online distribution

Online distribution of travel and tourism services has grown dynamically over the last 20 years. Highly developed online tourism and travel markets, such as the USA, the UK, and Germany, have already reached the maturity stage and further dynamic growth could not be expected. At the same time, new online markets, such as Russian Federation and China, have emerged along with the expansion of the powerful new digital intermediaries. This paper evaluates online travel and tourism services distribution trends in Serbia. The main aim of the study is to identify the factors that motivate the potential tourists to choose traditional travel agencies/tour operators instead of booking travel and tourism services online. Results have shown that there are discrepancies in the use of the Internet for online booking in comparison to the traditional approach to distribution of tourism and travel services. Nevertheless, the traditional form of distribution still represents the largest part of the overall distribution of tourism and travel services in Serbia.