Abstract
Congress tourism is a highly lucrative segment of the tourist offer, which usually happens outside the tourist season. The development of congress tourism requires the existence of high-quality congress tourism offer that will meet the needs of the participants and organizers of the conference. Participants in congresses are demanding guests, but also capable of payment, but they need to ensure all necessary preconditions for quality work, but also to adequately have free time. In this regard, the fundamental role of congress tourism is to promote tourism with well-organized system of promotional activities, continuing education, personnel, market research, application of quality standards etc. Congress tourism, and all the facilities are very important in the future tourism development in Serbia, especially when it comes to large gatherings that generate significant revenue. The aim of this paper is to analyze the main characteristics of congress tourism market in the world and Serbia, which has all the requirements to become a leading destination of this form of tourism in Southeastern Europe.