Greatest potential for investors in tourist real estate in Serbia in the hotel industry

Published on 2. December 2022., News

We see the greatest potential for investors in tourist real estate in Serbia in the hotel industry, especially in hotels located in major cities such as Belgrade, Niš, Novi Sad and Kragujevac, Zoran Danilović, Associate Director – Investment & Hotels in to the CBRE SEE company, but also drew attention to the fact that investors are also focusing on hotels with an emphasis on additional content, which are well connected to larger cities, while real estate investors have also recognized the potential of conference tourism.

CBRE South Eastern Europe (CBRE SEE), one of the leading regional consulting companies for commercial real estate, opened a new line of business dedicated to capital investments in the tourism real estate sector, which was the reason for us to check with them what the potential of the Serbian tourism sector is when it comes to about investors in tourist real estate.

“When we talk about tourism, primarily in terms of the newly opened sector within our company, the focus is on investments in the hotel industry, as well as several alternative types of accommodation capacities. As for the potential of the hotel sector in Serbia, we primarily see a strong recovery in larger cities through a further increase in key hotel parameters, such as room occupancy and average room price,” Danilović told our portal.

Such a trend, as he points out, is dictated by the end of travel restrictions from the pandemic period, so not only tourists, but also business people “returned”, and Belgrade became a business “hub” in Southeast Europe.

On the other hand, it indicates that, with significant openings of new or expansion of existing offices of international companies in Belgrade, but also in other larger cities such as Novi Sad and Niš, the demand for hotel accommodation is also increasing, while the increase in the price of renting apartments also affects the growth prices of private accommodation (AirBnB), which further affects the increase in demand for hotel facilities.

“Conference tourism is another important segment for the entire country, and primarily for Belgrade as a regional business hub, where connection with cities in the region by air transport also plays a key role.” Bearing in mind the previously mentioned end of travel restrictions and the new entry of companies into our market, we see a good perspective of conference tourism, which has already been recognized by the largest real estate investors in the country “, stressed Danilović.

In CBRE SEE, they also see the continuation of the increased demand for accommodation facilities in the most visited tourist places in Serbia.

“Guests prefer hotels with additional facilities, which is confirmed by the growing occupancy and price of rooms, which further encourages investors to invest in this segment of hotels,” says Danilović.

When it comes to locations, they see the greatest potential in hotels in larger cities such as Belgrade, Niš, Novi Sad and Kragujevac.

“However, the focus is also on hotels that have an emphasis on additional content, and that are infrastructurally well connected to larger cities, where the availability of the highway plays a big role.” “Currently, the most attractive tourist destinations outside the larger cities are Kopaonik, Zlatibor, Vrnjačka Banja, Fruška gora, Divčibare and Tara“, said our interlocutor.

He emphasizes that for the further development of tourism capacities, the key issue is the infrastructure, because it is necessary for guests to get to the destination as easily as possible, but also that the offer they can provide to guests is also very important.

“With the development of one destination in terms of various activities, it is necessary to ensure the filling of hotel capacities even in the off-season, and this is an opportunity on which operators, local self-governments and other authorities that are responsible for the development of tourism must work together . In this way, the impact of seasonality would be reduced, capacity utilization would increase, and thus the average price, which encourages investors to make further investments”, concluded Zoran Danilović,

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