Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Rasim Ljajić opened today the Tourist Information Centre in Palić, financed by the Ministry with seven million dinars, adding that Palić deserves to be one of the most important tourist destinations in the country.

“This is one of the better tourist centres in Serbia, if not one of the best, and it can be a model for the tourist information centres we wish to see in many places and tourist destinations across Serbia”, said the Minister in Palić.

He noted that the Tourist Information Centre is just one of the four projects implemented by the Ministry last year in Palić, with a total of 19 million dinars allocated.

“This year once again we are prepared to use Ministry funds to finance projects aimed at developing tourism in Palić, a location we must position as one of the most important tourist destinations in all of Serbia. With the potential it has, it deserves this, so we can no longer speak of potential and opportunities, we must speak of specific results”, said Ljajić.

Ljajić also said that the distribution of vouchers had a very good start this year, with 11,198 vouchers distributed to date.

Most of the vouchers, he stated, have been handed out to pensioners, mostly for the Lukovska banja, Prolom banja and Banja Koviljača spas.

“We have five facilities in Palić that accept vouchers, but during these three months there has not been as much interest for this tourist location as we have for all other parts of our country. We must work more on promotion so that the vouchers will be used in Palić, with all the potential it has”, he concluded.

Speaking of the tourist turnover in Palić during the first two months, Ljajić said the results are more than optimistic, because a 15 percent increase in the number of tourists was achieved in January and February, but he also added that even more encouraging is the growth of foreign tourists, reaching 32 percent during the first two months of this year.

He expressed conviction that this will be a record tourist year across Serbia, because the first months are showing a 9 percent increase of foreign currency influx from tourism, an increase of 18 percent in tourism, while the number of overnight stays increased by over 20 percent.