Assistant Minister for tourism Renata Pindžo has said early today in a TV show on RTS, that the interest of citizens who want to use the vouchers this year is much better than last year. She said that in 2016 there had been 46.000 requests for vouchers which had substantially contributed to the return of domestic guests and ability to spend their holidays or part of their holidays in their own country.

Ms Pindžo has reminded that this yea Serbian Government has allocated funds for 60.000 vouchers, however the number was not sufficient. Around 56.000 citizens have applied for the vouchers so far, and due to this huge interest, money has been allocated for additional 20.000 vouchers.

“Pensioners are those who applied most, around 57 per cent of the total number of applications, then employees with 33 per cent and 9 per cent are those unemployed. The deadline for submitting applications was October 15, and for realisation of vouchers it is November 20, 2017. The citizens have almost 800 hospitality facilities available, and the list of hospitality facilities is being updated on weekly basis. The greatest interest the citizens have shown for spas, but we should not forget Kopaonik, Zlatibor, Stara Planina”, says Assistant Minister.

Ms Pindžo has also announced that in Belgrade on June 29 and 30, a conference will be held named “Sustainable Tourism Development in the Danube Region: New Perspectives“. That will be a great chance, she said, to define the policy and strategic frames for the creation of regional touristic products and their promotion. “When speaking of the region, we refer to the Danube countries and the Western Balkan countries”, Assistant Minister added.

As a result of the conference we will have the Belgrade declaration which will serve as a platform for adoption of some other decisions based on this principle. One of the topics will be creative economies in order to bring close the cultural heritage Serbia can be proud of.

The conference is organised by the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications in cooperation with the German Development Agency (GIZ) and the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). On that occasion Belgrade will be visited by the Secretary General of the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Taleb Rifai.