Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia and Minister of Trade, Tourism, and Telecommunications Rasim Ljajić has said today in Belgrade, after signing the Agreement on cooperation in the field of tourism with the Albanian Minister of Tourism and Environmental Protection Bledi Klossi, that Serbia and Albania have the potential for a development of cooperation in tourism, and for the creation of a joint touristic product in order to attract, primarily, guests from the overseas.

Mr Ljajić has said that Serbia is interested in increasing the touristic turnover between Serbia and Albania which is now negligible being only 3.000 to 5.000 our people staying in Albania, while we do not even register Albanian tourists coming to Serbia since their number is rather small.

“We do believe that this agreement can encourage and bring closer our potentials to the tourists of the two countries. We do believe that we have a lot to offer and that the mutual exchange of experts in the field of tourism, cooperation of our travel agencies, chambers of commerce, but the arrivals of the media of both countries which will report about those potentials, quite certainly contribute to the growth of the turnover in both directions”, says Mr Ljajić.

He has said that the Agreement with Albania is one of numerous Serbia has with more or less every country in the region, and that those agreements, which have been aligned, are left to be signed with Croatia and Bulgaria.

“In this way we want to create a joint touristic product of the countries in the region. We think that those agreements are of particular importance since they lead us towards the creation of that joint touristic product. By that we are increasing our chances to attract tourists from distant, primarily overseas markets”, says Mr Ljajić.

If the countries in the region, he adds, act independently and individually, those chances are much poorer due to the trends of tourists, in particular coming from those distant markets, to visit two, three, or more countries during one touristic trip.

Serbia, says Mr Ljajić, has joint touristic products with Montenegro and Macedonia.

“We want to use this for making a contribution to the creation of a joint touristic product primarily of the countries of the West Balkans. Nothing can link people, countries, our societies better than tourism and nothing is as good and efficient in breaking the stereotypes and barriers among people as the touristic trips and experience people gain during those touristic visits and stays in certain countries”, Mr Ljajić has emphasized.
In that respect, he assessed, the social role of tourism is rather huge.

When it comes to the cooperation with Albania, Mr Ljajić says that so far we have had joint tries to present ourselves on the Japanese market, so we did it together with Albania and Montenegro.

“After that the product included Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was named Balkans – your next destination. We believe that it is a way towards the creation of a joint touristic product”, says Mr Ljajić.
Serbia is interested, as he says, in creating a joint touristic product between Serbia and Albania which we can offer to third markets.

“We are open for cooperation primarily with Macedonia and Montenegro where we see there are potentials, but with other countries as well, to present ourselves on third distant markets. The great role in that has our touristic industry, our tour-operators, our travel agencies, and certainly chambers of commerce of both countries will be part of this project”, says Mr Ljajić.

Albanian Minister of Tourism and Environmental Protection Blendi Klossi has said after signing the Agreement that tourism is becoming an important part of the economy of the two countries, since it brings money, and money brings economic strength and improvement for all the regions.

“Albania and Serbia have great chances and a lot of things to offer together. The potentials are huge and they should be used, including the cultural heritage, promotion of our life, life style”, says Mr Klossi, stating that after signing the agreement a strong support should be given to all the institutions included in the sector of tourism.

Mr Klossi says that he has talked with Mr Ljajić about the need for the organisation of a joint meeting of the ministers of tourism from the region in order to create a joint strategy and joint touristic product which would unify all the offers given by the countries in the region, including Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo.

“In that way we could achieve far better results on the world market”, says Mr Klossi.