The probability that this year will be a record year for the tourism sector is 99 percent, Aleksandar Seničić, director of the National Association of Travel Agencies YUTA. This is indicated by current statistical data, as well as expectations expressed before and during the celebration of World Tourism Day, September 27th.
From January to August of this year, a quarter more foreign guests visited our country, and it is interesting that the number of “foreigners” and domestic guests almost equalized and that a total of 2.8 million tourists traveled through Serbia this year, half of whom were foreigners, according to the current data of the Republic Institute of Statistics (RZS).
The recently concluded 13th Tourism Forum was an opportunity to summarize the results of this year’s season, but also to recall the year 2022, when, according to the statements of local officials, a record of 2.5 billion euros in tourism revenue was achieved for the first time.
Last year, according to RZS data, 12.25 million tourist overnights were spent in our country, of which almost five million were spent by foreigners. Most of them spent the night in Belgrade and Novi Sad, while domestic visitors are still more frequent guests in spa and mountain towns.
Also, in 2022, according to the words of the President of Serbia and other officials, the income from tourism reached 2.5 billion euros, while the Ministry of Tourism and Youth hopes that this record will be broken this year and that the income will amount to around three billion euros.
“All this speaks in favor of the fact that Serbia positioned its tourist offer well even before the outbreak of the pandemic, and that this trend continues. However, what we have to take into account is that such large percentage changes will not be possible in the coming years, since we are already starting from a fairly good position, so we need to get used to single-digit growth as well,” Aleksandar Seničić points out.
He believes that the achieved financial results are very good.
“If we could stay there, or a few percent up and down over the next five to 10 years, that would mean a lot,” says Seničić.
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