Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Rasim Ljajić has stated, at the closure of the 25th World Youth and Student Travel Conference held in Belgrade, that youth tourism can contribute to the reconciliation in the region and creation of a new image of this part of the world.
“Serbia has a lot to offer, not only in Belgrade, especially when it comes to youth tourism”, Mr Ljajić has said, addressing the participants of the conference.
He has underlined that the Ministry wants to position Belgrade as an important destination for youth tourism.
“We want to create joint tourist product with the countries in the region, since this is how we can change the image of the entire region, which cannot be so proud of the great history when it comes to mutual cooperation”, Mr Ljajić has said.
He has stated that youth tourism can help in many things when it comes to changing of the image and creation of a new cultural and tourism identity.
“We want to put additional efforts, and use the promotion of youth tourism as a contribution to the reconciliation and cooperation process between the countries and people of this region. Serbia is safe and stabile country and we want those features become the features of the entire region”, Mr Ljajić has said.
Minister has stressed that Serbia has a lot of things to offer – numerous musical, film and other cultural festivals, rafting, mountain climbing, mountain tourism, and lots of other things.
He has said that Serbia has around 1.700 events a year.
“I would like you to visit some of them and see how many people come to those events”, he has said, adding that for foreign tourists the most important thing is to see the city and feel its charms and hospitality of people.
World Youth and Student Travel Conference (WYSTC) is held in Belgrade hotel Crowne Plaza, in the period September 20-23. WYSTC, supported by the UN World Tourism Organisation, is a leading business event at the global level in the field of youth, student and educational tourism.
There are approximately 272 million young tourists out of 1.2 billion international tourist visits in 2015. WYSTC gathers more than 450 tourism professionals from 100 world countries.
