Dimensions of Integrated Tourism – Case Studies of Selected Villages in the Serbia-Romania Border Area Snežana ŠTETIĆ 1 , Sanja PAVLOVIĆ 2 , Sara STANIĆ 2 , Dario ŠIMIČEVIĆ 1 1 College of Tourism, Belgrade, SERBIA 2 University of Belgrade, Faculty of Geography, Belgrade, SERBIA E-mail: negics@gmail.com, spavlovic20@gmail.com, sara.stanic.zemun@gmail.com, darios@visokaturisticka.edu.rs K e y w o r d s: integrated tourism, dimensions, border villages, Serbia, Romania A B S T R A C T 1. INTRODUCTION Lagging of villages and agrarian sector slows down the overall development, which has resulted in a more complex model of development policy towards village and rural society, a multidisciplinary based model of integrated rural development [1]. The strategy of integrated development implies involvement in an innovated development process of all the resources of local environment, universality, rationality and sustainable use of resources adapted to market demands and needs of the local population [2]. Cooperative entrepreneurship necessary in integral development has the support of economic development strategy, and it is particularly important in countries that are in transition processes [3]. The development benefit, which may be conditioned by integrated rural tourism, provides new opportunities for the lagging regions and local economic stakeholders [1]. The term integration is analyzed in various ways, such as: a). Spatial integration (in the areas where tourism is less developed) [4]. b). Integration of human resources (referring to the working people in an economy, as a means to combat social exclusion and gain competitive advantages) [5]. c). Institutional integration (agencies in a partnership or other semi-permanent structures) [6]. d). Innovative integration (integration of new ideas and processes, in order to achieve the growth or competitive advantage of a tourism product) [7]. Centre for Research on Settlements and Urbanism Journal of Settlements and Spatial Planning J o u r n a l h o m e p a g e: http://jssp.reviste.ubbcluj.ro Integrated rural tourism provides new development opportunities for underdeveloped regions or villages and local clusters. It is defined as the type of tourism explicitly linked to the economic, social, cultural, natural and human resources and localities in which it takes place. In this context, the separation of all dimensions is significant, including all the elements of an integrated tourism product and referring to the networking of all stakeholders, level of tourism development in chronological and geographical terms, endogeneity, sustainability, embeddedness, complementariness and empowerment of the entire sector. These dimensions can be monitored over time as trends and levels, and can be spatially compared. The qualitative research is applied in the paper. It is based on case studies of selected rural settlements in Serbian border areas with Romania. We used logical analysis in various social situations and we explained the nature and manifestation forms of integrated tourism. By applying the comparative method we ascertained similarities and differences of the dimensions of integrated tourism in the rural settlements under study. The research results show that integrated rural tourism provides a greater likelihood of coordination and institutional policy of rural and regional development, and fosters partnering and pooling. Numerous factors affect the implementation of integrated tourism in rural areas, and the examples of villages analyzed in this paper show that their peripherality is not restrictive.