Visitors' attitudes regarding the possibilities for further development of the “Srem Folk Fest”

Since its foundation in 2004, the ‘Srem Folk Fest’ is oriented towards promoting the local culture and tradition of the host city, Sremska Mitrovica, and its surroundings. It is organized in specific environment, or more precisely within the excavations of the ancient city of Sirmium. According to the venue and its content, this event might be characterized as multicultural outdoor spectacle, visited by 20,000 participants every year, throughout the four festival evenings. In 2015, the ‘Srem Folk Fest’ became a part of International Council of Organizations of Folklore Festivals and Folk Arts (CIOFF), which imposes a top standards in organizing festivals. It is also important to note that this year, the ‘Srem Folk Fest’ will be supported by Serbian National Commission for UNESCO, on the basis of the fact that this event is oriented towards preserving the intangible cultural heritage, important for wider social community. Since its foundation in 2004, this event became the well-known brand of the city and it hosted a large number of young people, not only from Europe, but also from Asia, Africa, South America, Central America. The main task of this paper is to identify potentials for repeating the visits of those who already participated in this event, but also to find ways for improving the quality of the current offer, in order to provide adequate promotion of the city and surrounding rural area. The research was conducted on the basis of the survey regarding the visitors’ attitudes on the current quality of this event, but also regarding their proposals for improving its content. Collected data were analyzed by using the SPSS statistical software. In addition to theoretical contribution, the research results might also serve as a basis for improving the event organization according to the visitors’ needs and their expectations. Besides that, results might also find a practical implication in terms of providing the basic information necessary for expanding this event within the surrounding area of Sremska Mitrovica