IMPACT OF ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE ON TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN KOSOVO

Road infrastructure and tourism represent positive implications for mutual relations and constraints. Today, the impacts of road infrastructure on tourism and vice versa are more visible than ever before. Tourism influences road infrastructure through intensive construction and modernization of the road network, increase and modernization of means of transport, increase in the number of passengers and goods, as well as the introduction of new forms of transport organization. The development of road infrastructure in Tourism affects the mastery of long distances, reducing the duration of travel for tourist purposes. The positioning of commercial destinations depends mainly on three basic elements: availability, attraction and organization. Through a developed road network, it is possible to physically own long distances from markets in the origin-destination (OD) relationship, so the destination through a quality road network becomes easier to access, better organized and more attractive, better positioned , and the most famous. The synergistic effect of road infrastructure and tourism is reflected in the fact that joint investments, and coordinated in tourism and road capacities, provide greater financial effects than the effect that can be achieved with separate investments of the same capital in one and the other activity, therefore this phenomenon deserves consideration in the case of investments in road and tourist capacities. One of the limitations of Transport and Tourism is environmental pollution and the low level of road safety which, not only poses major social and economic problems but directly threatens the development of tourism. Due to the lack of roads, or the poor condition of the existing roads and due to the low level of road safety, in some tourist destinations there may be a decrease in traffic for tourist needs. This means that a developed tourism must be preceded by a developed road infrastructure.