Serbia: Serbians spending the big money on foreign tourism travel

At the same time as it comes to outbound tourism, Serbia surprises the travel and tourism industry with 500 Million Euros their citizens spent abroad on tourism. For the initial eight months of this year, Serbian citizens have spent 464 million euros abroad, which is 20 million euros additional than in the same period last year.

The major increase in spending of foreign exchange was recorded for business trips – six million euros additional than in the same period in 2012.

For additional spending Serbs gave three million euros additional than last year. The use of cards abroad has been “light-handed”. For eight months last year, namely, using “plastic money” Serbs spent four million euros less.

From the beginning of the year until August most of the money Serbs left in Greece, about 83.3 million euros. This is not the final bill, because the data for all season are not from presently on processed. However, despite the lack of money this year, Serbs spent additional money on travel than last year.

“The cost of business travel decreases everywhere in the world, and in our country and in the region such spending has increased,” says Alexander Senicic, director of JUTA. “I guess it’s related to the crisis and that company representatives travel to find work. However, we do not have precise parameters of the calculation, and the question is what has been spent in real tourist traffic.”

Despite Ohrid and the natural beauty of neighboring Macedonia, Serbian tourists avoid the country, so in family visits they left 6.5 million euros. In Bosnia Serbs spent just over 10 million euros, the same as in the United States.

Next Greece, Serbian travelers spent the majority of the money in Germany, 39.4 million euros. In Turkey, Serbs spent 35 million euros, and in Italy 29.9 million euros. In Montenegro, Russia and Austria each was spent 22 million euros.

The fact that in Croatia Serbs spend a bit less than 15 million euros, as in France or Slovenia, is surprising only to those who think in terms of tourists. Serbian passengers spend the same all of money, by about 2 million euros in Croatia in July, May and February.

Despite the civil war in Egypt, in this country Serbs have spent 4.3 million euros, nearly as much as in neighboring peaceful nations Romania and Bulgaria. It is interesting that Bulgaria earns additional from Serbian skiers than the swimmers.