Kopaonik is named after digging ore. On this mountain ore was dug before the arrival of the Romans in these areas. Since the arrival of Saxons in the thirteenth century to the middle of the fifteenth century, there was a flourishing mining and silver in this period was the main product Kopaonik mines. Gold was obtained from various ores and in various ways.

In the thirties of the twentieth century Kopaonik has started to develop tourism especially when the railway Kraljevo – Raška (1931) was put into operation through the valley of the Ibar. An organized groups of tourists started to come (hikers, skiers and others). After the construction of mountain hut in 1935, there was the first official data on tourists on Kopaonik. Tourists-guests, 100 of them, were received in January 1936.
With the construction of the asphalt road from Jošanička Banja over Brzeće to Kopaonik and further to Kruševac (1975-1985.), basic conditions for the development of tourist activities on Kopaonik were created. By 1964, there was no planned work on the development of tourism, and in 1968 the community for the promotion and development of Kopaonik was established.

In 1980, a working organization “Kopaonik – Genex” was established, after which the planned construction of a tourist center Suvo Rudište on Kopaonik began, which was finished in 1986. Further development of tourism on Kopaonik is scheduled in plans NP Kopaonik, and in plans of tourism of Brus municipality and Raška which provides: development of rural tourism, the activation of new tourist sites, learning about cultural and historical heritage in the region, further development of eco-tourism and other activities