Serbia may attract this year 15% more foreign tourists than the 2.5 million who visited the country in 2015, following serious financial backing from the government to the sector, tourism minister Rasim Ljajic told SeeNews.
Serbia’s state budget for this year has allocated more than 1 billion dinars ($8.9 million/8.05 million euro) to tourism, of which 640 million dinars should go to improving tourist infrastructure, Ljajic said.
The state budget also provided, for the first time, for 120 million dinars in subsidies for agencies organising visits by foreign tourists to the Southeast European country.
“Interest on the part of agencies for this type of financial assistance is huge,” the minister said, adding that candidate beneficiaries have until November 20 to submit the necessary documents.
“Furthermore, we allocated 101 million dinars to the promotion of tourist offers and events,” Ljajic said.
He added that 230 million dinars from the state budget has been allocated for citizen vouchers of 5,000 dinars each, to which people with lower incomes are entitled.
The vouchers can be used in 582 tourist facilities across the country. “The goal is to encourage Serbian tourists to visit local destinations rather than foreign destinations,” the minister said.
So far during 2016 more than 27,000 citizens have applied for vouchers. Last year, travel vouchers were given out for the first time, to a total of 14,000 citizens.
As a result, domestic tourists increased 12%, according to Ljajic.
State investments in Serbia, however, should increase, the minister said, adding that the Serbian Tourist Organization has a budget of 3 million euro, as compared to three times as much of its Croatian peer.
As one area holding untapped potential, he pointed to spas centres, noting that there are 300 mineral springs and 24 spas in the country.
Tourism in Serbia generated some 1.1 billion euro last year, or some 2.2% of the country’s GDP.
Source; SeeNews
