Serbia visited by 13% more tourists in 2016 – Overnight stays and foreign exchange inflow increase

(Photo: Communis)

- In the first five months of 2016, we had a 14% growth of the number of local tourists and a 12% growth of the number of foreign tourists. There's also a 16% growth of the number of overnight stays, and the increase of foreign exchange inflow by 16% relative to the same period in 2015 – Ljajic said at the closing event of the My Serbia caravan in Belgrade.

As he stated, the foreign exchange inflow has already been expressed both in dollars and in euros, which is very significant, as the country's deficit of the inflow and outflow of tourism income will decrease.

The growth of the number of foreign tourists, as the Minister pointed out, has been primarily contributed to by the voucher program, which used to be the laughing stock of everyone.

- We've had 32,000 voucher users so far and 14,000 more vouchers to distribute and there is no doubt that all of them will have been used by the October 15 deadline. This means 300,000 more overnight stays of local tourists than last year, which is an impressive result – Ljajic emphasizes and adds that there's room for an even greater tourist turnover, which the state's endeavors in the domain of tourist infrastructure will contribute to.

- This year, EUR 6 million has been set aside for the development of the tourist infrastructure throughout Serbia. We wish to revive certain tourist centers which have been dormant in the last few years, but also to affirm all the significant tourist destinations in Serbia – Ljajic said and added that he referred to Zlatibor, Kopaonik, Vrnjacka Banja and other destinations.

As he says, the focus this year will also be on the Danube, where a whole array of projects will be realized.

The Chairman of the Assembly of the City of Belgrade, Nikola Nikodijevic, said to the press that the city had done a lot for the tourism and that Belgrade was one of the fastest growing continental tourist destinations in Europe, taking the second place in tourist safety, after Stockholm. Marija Labovic, the director of the National Tourism Organization of Serbia, has invited the Serbian citizens to spend their holidays in the country, whereas the director of the Tourist Organization of Belgrade, Miodrag Popovic, mentioned that 2016 was a record-setting year for Belgrade regarding the number of overnight stays of foreign students, just as the previous two had been.