A study group from Eastern Serbia and Sumadija visited southern France this week to establish co-operation and exchange experiences between the regions in the fields of tourism, winemaking and cultural heritage promotion.
In the announcement of the organizers of the project “EU for You – for cultural heritage and tourism”, as part of the visit, it is pointed out that the goal of the project is to transfer the tourist offer and practice of the wine region of Southern France to Eastern Serbia and Sumadija.
Guests from Serbia had the opportunity to meet Gajak, one of the oldest vineyards in Europe, which has developed a long tradition of wine tourism, combining the offer with cultural heritage.
Precisely this model of merging wine and cultural tourism is important for the study group, in order to raise the existing knowledge and skills in this area to a higher level, reports Tanjug. As it is stated, eastern Serbia and Sumadija abound in famous cultural monuments, but also with a long tradition in wine production, and meetings with colleagues from France enabled them to learn more about the united offers of wine and cultural heritage, as tourist potentials.
“What is most valuable in Gajak is the autochthonousness of grapes. We have an association of 300 winemakers and 110 cellars and two cooperatives. Since 2010, we have been dealing with wine tourism and we are trying to connect caterers and winemakers, in order to better promote our region,” said the coordinator for wine tourism in Gajak, Oreli Shalman.
The study group also visited the stone village of Pujselsi, which after the restoration became a tourist attraction, the participants in the project from Serbia shared their experiences in a statement.
“The approach of uniting everything that characterizes the territory is exactly what we lacked in our chain,” said the representative of the Regional Agency for Economic Development of Sumadija and Pomoravlje, Natasa Djordjevic.
It was announced that Rajacke pivnice have the potential to be a tourist attraction of wine tourism and cultural heritage, like Gajak and Pujselsi, and Kristina Lukic, who will soon open a winery at Rajacke pivnice, said that she would look up to her colleagues from France.
“They used the territory in all possible ways. That is how we should do it too,” Lukic concluded.
The system of joining cooperatives was launched by the French so that each member could profit, and our businessmen in the fields of winemaking, agriculture and tourism will follow their example, in order to improve these sectors throughout our country, Tanjug reports.
