The National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia adopted amendments to the Law on Tourism which should contribute to the combat against grey economy in this field and improve protection of the tourists travelling through travel agencies.
As stated by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Rasim Ljajić at a National Assembly debate on that Act, new solutions envisage broader competences of the inspection supervision and they also envisage that the inspections may, in the future, control the operation of the private sector, fulfillment of minimum technical requirements in the private sector and rural households, and collection of the residence tax.
The Minister said that the amendments also define clear criteria for the selection of directors of tourism organizations and they envisage that trip organizers must have a bank guarantee or an insurance policy in order to obtain a license to work.
The priority task of the proposed amendments is the establishment of a legal framework which would provide full support to the successful and efficient management of tourism development and which would ensure compatibility of all the laws regulating this field.
The amendments introduce a possibility to enhance the tourist turnover realized on the territory of Serbia, which would enable the country to influence the increase in tourist turnover and financial effects of tourism.
Rights, obligations and authorizations of inspection services were reallocated to ensure the more efficient achievement of the primary task which is to combat grey economy.
Consequently, the local self-government i.e. authorized inspection authorities of local self-government were entrusted with a certain part of supervision of the application of this Law.
For purpose of more efficient execution and collection of prescribed penalties, according to the new provisions of the Law on Misdemeanors, one of the authorizations of inspectors is a possibility to issue a misdemeanor warrant and, in relation to this, fixed fines were determined for certain misdemeanor sanctions.
The amendments, inter alia, reintroduce an obligation for candidates to bear the costs of taking the theoretical and practical part of the professional examination by themselves, and the Government of Serbia expects that this will increase inflow in the budget of the Republic of Serbia and in the budget of the local self-government unit.
The amendments stipulate that the Director of the Tourism Organization of Serbia shall be appointed and dismissed by the Government of Serbia, at the proposal of the Ministry. They also envisage that a tourism organization may also be established for the territory of the Autonomous Province and for the territory of local self-government, and they also introduce an obligation for an intermediary to register in the Tourism Register before it commences with its activities.
The Tourism Register is held at the Business Registers Agency and it is used for the registration of travel agencies – trip organizers and travel agencies – intermediaries.
The Tourism Register also keeps records of the management of tourism areas, tourist destinations, destination management organizations, destination management companies, professional congress organizers, tourism organizations, caterers, categorized and non-categorized catering facilities, and persons providing local handicraft services.
