Serbia becoming increasingly attractive tourist destination

BELGRADE - The National Tourism Organisation of Serbia still does not have the exact data on the number of tourists who visited Serbia to attend various music events this summer, but the assessments show the country has become increasingly attractive for foreign tourists.

Director of the National Tourism Organisation of Serbia Gordana Plamenac told Tanjug that the data has not been gathered yet as most events such as the Nishville Jazz Festival in Nis, the Trumpet Festival in Guca in western Serbia and Beer Fest in Belgrade all ended a few days ago.

The events attract a large number of tourists, Plamenac said and added that these events have won world-wide recognition over the past several years.

This is important not just because of the number of audience attending the events but also because of the fact that people of different profiles are interested in international music festivals EXIT, Guca Trumpet Festival or Nisville and they want to learn more about different destinations in the country, she said.

Serbia is yet to become a major hit among destinations because bad associations to Serbia aboard are fading and the country is becoming increasingly attractive to foreigners, Plamenac said.

Statistically, tourist visits by foreigners to Serbia this summer cannot be clearly distinguished from business-purpose trips yet, that is, it is still not known who came to Serbia to attend business events and which tourists came for sports or culture programmes, Plamenac said.

The statistics does not treat profiled tourist visits as special categories, and this could be the subject of additional surveys, she said.

Around 10 times more foreign tourists visited Serbia in the first six months of the...