Tourism is the branch of the economy most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, whose effects will be felt for a long time. Many countries have managed to return to normal flows of tourist traffic with the help of state donations, especially countries that recognize tourism as an economic mainstay. Measures that have been relaxed but are unfortunately still in effect in some countries, such as doing business online, keeping a distance, and developing and applying modern technology in all sectors, will definitely help in the recovery. However, the question is whether this will be possible within the framework of the development of tourism activities, and it will be of key importance to observe the measures necessary for the recovery of tourism, but that will not undermine security. Each country will find its own solutions as it re-enters the market and seeks to be ready for other similar unpredictable situations.

In the period of the pandemic, rural and mountainous environments proved to be best suited as an escape from the disease’s catastrophic impact and negative consequences. Apart from travel to those destinations, demand for other types of tourism such as free and independent travel, luxury travel and health or medical tourism were observed ^[1][7], including sports tourism and smart tourism ^[2][8]. Most studies have shown that destinations in nature, which can be called units of internal tourism, were less affected than urban and coastal ones ^[3][9], and that being isolated gave them an advantage over other forms of tourism, because they reduced the risk of infections by offering unpolluted air, low population density, reduced interaction between people, easy social distancing and smaller-scale accommodation ^[4][10].

Many studies also debate the importance of rural areas, claiming that a rural area is not necessarily a tourist destination. However, it certainly becomes one when agricultural companies diversify economic activities by investing in rural tourism, and local actors provide active support and co-participation ^[5][11], and that rural tourism is characterized by key aspects: safety location, sustainable development, and community-based characteristics and experiences ^[6][12]. The reasons that rural areas are perceived as the opposite of urban ones ^[7][13] are precisely why they are suitable for health protection: they offer isolation, relaxation, outdoor activities and proximity to nature ^[8][9][10][14,15,16]. In the period of COVID-19, people’s recreational behavior also changed: they turned to unexplored natural regions, and had more contact with natural elements ^[11][17] because urban areas did not offer the best chance for survival during the crisis. The pandemic, in a certain way, led to an economic, social and cultural rural revitalization ^[12][18].

The situation that befell the world, followed by security measures and border closures, encouraged many countries to change their strategies in tourism and to turn to the less visited hidden natural areas ^[13][19], and this increased demand led to the strengthening of the market position of rural households ^[14][20]. However, the sudden shift to rural areas and staying in them for a long period of time led to the disclosure of numerous deficiencies within rural tourism businesses and their provision of services in terms of quality, thus providing new opportunities for the reorganization and future development of villages with the aim of better strategic planning ^[15][21]. In many countries, more than 70% of tourism resources are distributed in the countryside ^[15][21], which indicates that the tendency towards tourism in rural areas has increased significantly and that destinations that had the possibility of providing quality rural services experienced stronger and more permanent recovery of domestic demand ^[16][22]. The trend of going to rural areas has continued even during the waning of the pandemic ^[16][22], but the problems that were observed demand a solution, especially in terms of quality ^[17][23], and such a new orientation requires investment in infrastructure, marketing and regional cooperation, in order to draw both domestic and foreign tourists to natural, gastronomic and local attractions ^[18][24].

Although the number of tourists in some rural areas has increased, the rural tourism market has not fully recovered and is struggling to grow significantly after the pandemic ^[19][25]. Apart from the key strategic steps of recovery such as enhancing the local area’s self-governance ability, boosting rural social networks and skills, promoting innovation of development mechanisms and persistence in cultivating resilience ^[20][26], it is necessary to thoroughly investigate the level of service quality and determine strategic measures for its improvement ^[21][27].

The recovery of rural tourism in the era after COVID-19 should not mean only a temporary escape during crisis, but should also consolidate achievements in reducing poverty and promote rural revitalization and the return of youth to live and work in the countryside ^[22][28]. Furthermore, the controlled accelerated development of rural areas after the pandemic, with a focus on service quality, can contribute to higher incomes for rural households and rural enterprises in all sectors of Europe’s diverse rural economies, as well as to charities and social organizations, as previous crises have also highlighted the resilience and adaptability of rural economies ^[23][29].

Countries that saw a higher degree of economic crisis looked positively at investing in the quality of rural service development and generally in services of all forms of tourism, supporting its development ^[24][30]. Rural tourism with high-quality service is considered as a positive for the development of the entire tourism industry, and as offering an additional source of income that fits well with the existing sustainable means of living ^[25][31]. Furthermore, earlier research has shown that the pandemic had a positive impact on rural households and mountain tourism ^[26][32], and that rural tourism, by developing quality service in accordance with consumer demands, can influence the revitalization of rural areas and the entire local economy, especially in crisis conditions ^[27][28][33,34]. After the pandemic, the quality of services in rural areas becomes more and more important ^[29][35], because the strength rural tourism will have in stimulating economic development depends on the level of quality achieved ^[30][36].

The specificity of rural services is reflected in traditional and rustic accommodation, which is different from that of standard city hotels. It is increasingly difficult to achieve a high level of quality that satisfies modern consumers ^[31][37], but investment in quality is certainly of key importance because of the multiple benefits for local society and tourists ^[32][33][38,39]. A different arrangement of space and services, as well as a multifunctional prior village environment with the use of agricultural land and a tendency towards sustainable development, is a characteristic of areas that are far from urban centers and whose quality is very often difficult to determine ^[34][35][36][40,41,42]. Many rural areas have numerous natural resources needed to attract tourists, but there are other factors at play that serve to satisfy the needs of visitors, and they must attract them exclusively with quality, which is confirmed by numerous studies ^{[37][38][39][40][41]}[43,44,45,46,47].

The evaluation of the current state of rural service quality depends on the fulfillment of visitors’ expectations ^[42][48], and the smallest gap between expected and received service ^[43][44][49,50]. This means that quality must be achieved in each of the stages of providing services to tourists ^[45][51]. Furthermore, there are studies that claim that more attention should be paid to the material elements of service quality, but in order to improve the overall tourist experience in the future, everything should be consolidated with the intangible elements of service quality ^[46][52].

In researching the quality of rural service, the main components are the examination of the difference in the expected and received responses from the visitor, and the task is to make the gap as small as possible ^[47][53]. Most studies use the SERVQUAL model ^[47][53], which has been adapted to rural service quality in the form of the RURALQUAL model ^[48][54]. When analyzing quality attributes, the IPA grid is most often used, where all attributes are divided into two dimensions: performance and importance ^[49][55]. The combination of the IPA grid and the gap between the expected and received rural service contributes to a better understanding of the position of the service and to finding key factors for success in providing quality services ^[50][51][56,57].

There are several issues of service quality in the literature. Parasuraman et al. ^[47][53] highlight several elements of quality: tangible elements, reliability, response capability, assurance, and empathy, while Babakus and Boller ^[52][58] claim that the elements of quality adapt to the type of service and do not have predetermined elements applicable everywhere, adding to that the elements of cost and convenience. Zhou et al. ^[53][59] distinguished the following elements of rural service quality: functional elements, satisfaction elements, emotional elements and price value. Additionally, they used the IPA network to investigate the importance-performance relationship between the mentioned quality elements. Functional elements refer to the basic objects and equipment of the household, emotional elements to the relationship of the host to the guests ^[54][60]. Elements of satisfaction also play a key role in creating a quality offering in rural households ^[55][61]. However, price value is often considered as a special element of quality that greatly influences the attitude and perception of tourists ^[53][59].

Agrarian cooperatives can play an active role in the development of quality rural tourism offerings, especially in Serbia ^[56][62]. Rural tourism in Serbia has flourished since the pandemic period, and some authors believe that these areas will become the very center of tourism in Serbia ^[29][35]. During the pandemic, more than 80% of all tourist movements took place within rural and mountain destinations ^[57][3]. In 2019, the authors of this research atudy also conducted a similar survey of the quality of services in rural households on a smaller sample. It was observed that, comparing a repeated survey after the pandemic, the quality of the rural offering did not decline ^[29][35]. However, despite these data and the fact that the great importance of rural tourism in Serbia can be seen, there is very little literature and a small number of research studies on the topic and issues of service quality, especially after the pandemic ^[58][63].