TOURISTS MANIFESTATIONS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF CULINARY TOURISM IN BANAT (VOJVODINA, SERBIA) Bojana KALENJUK 1 , Dragan TEŠANOVIĆ 1 , Snježana GAGIĆ 2 , Nikola VUKSANOVIĆ 1 , Marija ŠKRINJAR 3 , 1 University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Science, Department of Geography, Tourism and Hotel Management, Novi Sad, Serbia 2 University of Alfa, College of professional studies in management and business communication, Sremski Karlovci, Serbia 3 University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Food Technology, Novi Sad, Serbia E-mail: bojanakalenjuk@yahoo.com ; tesanovic.dragan@gmail.com ; gagicsnjeza@yahoo.com ; vuksanovicnikola@yahoo.com ; skrinjarm@uns.ac.rs ; Abstract: Vojvodina has a large number of tourist manifestations of food and drinks which attract many domestic and foreign tourists. Tourist manifestations represent an integral part of gastronomic tourism, which is defined as the tourist visit of primary or secondary food producers, restaurants for producing and serving food and certain destinations for tasting and experiencing the regional specialties, where food and drink are primary motivation for travel. Recognizing the importance of tourist manifestations in the development of tourism this manuscript has a task to investigate the tourist manifestations in the territory of Banat, in order to determine the most frequent types of events in districts (Kikinda - Northern Banat District, Zrenjanin – Middle Banat district and Pancevo - South Banat District) and period of taking place of events. The research will include analysis of food and drink events in 2011. Keywords: tourist events, manifestation, food, beverage, culinary tourism, Vojvodina, Banat. 1. INTRODUCTION Tourist manifestations contribute greatly to the formation of the destinations image, increasing the cohesion of the local community and its pride, and improving their quality of life (Bjeljac et al., 2003; Bjeljac, Ž., 2004; Hadžić, O., Bjeljac, Ž., 2006). They are an integral form of culinary tourism which is defined as tourists visit to the primary or secondary food producers, hospitality facilities for production and serving of food and certain destinations for experiencing the taste of regional specialties, where food and beverages are the primary motivation for travel. Vojvodina has a large number of touristic food and beverages manifestations that attract many domestic and foreign tourists. Culinary tourism can be a subset of cultural tourism, which is defined as the activity of exploration and discovery of culture and history through food, which influences the formation of unforgettable experiences (Long, L.M., 2004). Thus, through gastronomy other forms of tourism are chanelled (Stojanović, T., Čerović, S., 2008). Therefore, many authors state that the culinary tourism differs from the agro-tourism, as it may represent a