Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade, Tourism, and Telecommunications Rasim Ljajić has said on the Avala that the synergy of the action of vouchers and promotional activities, starting of 2015, made the growth of the number of domestic tourists.

In 2015, for the first time after 2007, we had the growth of the number of domestic tourists. In 2015 we have a million and three thousand domestic tourists, and in 2017 we had almost a million and six thousand tourists, which is by 22 per cent more”, says Mr Ljajić at the celebration marking the beginning of this year’s promotional campaign of the Touristic Organisation of Serbia on domestic tourists which is named “Moments you will remember this summer”.

He said that the action of giving the vouchers for some destinations was a rescue for Sokobanja, which had 195 thousand overnight stays in 2015, and last year the number went up to 262 thousand, which is a growth by 34 per cent.

Mr Ljajić has said that the biggest issue of some destinations is that for years not a single penny was invested in their infrastructure projects and the lack of promotion, but that his hopes are that in the forthcoming period Serbia will have a dozen of serious internationally recognised, ratified touristic destinations.

“Apart from SOkobanja, we also plan to develop several other destinations with a good potential. We have the Palić Lake which is an excellent but underused destination where we also plan to have a number of measures and activities and the Danube with its seven fortresses out of which some are still being reconstructed.

Speaking of Avala as a touristic destination, Mr Ljajić has mentioned that two years ago Avala had no activities except from the tower from where Belgrade can be seen, but now there is a small town where tourists can linger thanks to the various activities offered there.

Thanks to that, says Minister, there are currently around 35 per cent more sold tickets for the tower than last year, while some months that percentage goes up to 50 per cent.

Minister announced that Avala will have new activities, which is the light on the tower itself, so that it can be seen at night from different parts of Belgrade.

“This year we hope to have around 200 thousand sold tickets for the tower, while last year we had around 160 thousand”, concluded Mr Ljajić.