South-Eastern Europe was, at the beginning of the modern-day tourism, in the 1960’s, a well-defined area of states. With the exception of Greece, all had communistic governments. Yugoslavia decided to open borders, invite tourists and enrich their hard currency income. According to UNWTO Yugoslavia was in 1980’s listed among the 10 most visited countries of the world. Through the eyes and experiences of a tour operator and academician, the paper will elaborate on tourism characteristics in three time-frames: 1.) in the historically unified space; 2.) in the contemporary fragmented space and 3.) in the post-industrial globalized space. Personal impressions will be enriched with results of own research and from young scientists’ mentorship. The Fall of the Iron Curtain, the strive for national/ethnic sovereignty, the inclusion of most of the East-European periphery into the EU, the uprising of the middle class in some Euro-Asian and Latin American countries, the change of the air travel mode, the growing cruising industry, the experience thirsty and adrenalin searching population and the health- and environment conscious social groups have again made the tourist destination South-Eastern Europe a territory worth to discover. The fragmented space of the former Yugoslavia is divided into 7 nation-states, crisscrossed by approximately 6326 km of semi-open, often not defined borders where on approximately 252 border crossings tourist must identify himself and declare custom goods. Despite it, will most countries in 2015 of the region report best economic results of the tourism industry ever. In addition to the pull-effect for the Europeans – namely the warm waters of the Mediterranean - sightseeing tourism of Asians is enriching outstanding features of cultures and nature. Historical capitols and towns, countries’ outstanding natural specifics, and dominant cultural sites register Asian visitors near the top of the foreign nation’s tourist list. The future of the region for the tourism industry lies in the promotion of cross-border development and in the increase of the awareness of sustainable development of tourism industries’ complexity. Tourism development can only be tolerated to an extent where it would not kill the inviting nature, the authentic culture and itself. Regulating millions of visitors in protected sites of nature and UNESCO heritage places is the task for tourism developers of the future.
Monoamine Oxidase A Gene Methylation and Its Role in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: First Evidence from the South Eastern Europe (SEE)-PTSD Study
