Seven awards for a growing industry
The National Tourism Organization of Serbia awarded the Tourism Flower, the highest acknowledgment for a contribution to the development of the tourism of our country for the thirty-fourth time. This award is all the greater since, according to the relevant minister Rasim Ljajić, tourism is our fastest-growing economic branch after construction.
The host of the ceremony was Marija Labović, the director of the NTOS, who represented the key achievements of our tourism in the five-year period. She specially highlighted the fact that our fast progress is also spoken about throughout Europe: “The European Commission for Tourism has stated the data that we are the fourth country according to total growth and the first country according to the growth of the number of tourists from China. Also, thanks to permanent campaigns and the incentive measure of the issuance of vouchers, we have succeeded in not only stopping the fall in the number of stays of domestic tourists, but also significantly increasing it.” She also emphasized the fact that there were almost sixty competing candidates, so the jury members, with professor Slobodan Čerović at the head of them, were deciding on the basis of subtle nuances.
A job woven with emotions
The representatives of the Tourism Organization of Novi Sad, which was delivered the award in the category of The Tourism Organization, came onto the stage of the cinema of the Museum of the Yugoslav Film Archive; the representatives of the City of Požarevac, which was awarded in the category of The Tourism Event; the Robinzon Agency, the recipient of the medal in the category of The Receptive Tourism Agency; the Premijer Aqua Hotel and the Residences of Ivanjica were awarded as the best Accommodation Facilities; the Belgrade Fair and Radovan Raičević won the award in the category of The Organization and The Individual Having Made a Contribution to Tourism Improvement. Branislav Knežević, the director of the TO of Novi Sad thanked on behalf of all of the award winners, saying, among other things, that apart from investing much energy and many professional skills tourism workers also invest a lot of emotions, and that no success is possible to achieve without them.
Supernova of the city of Novi Sad
By definition, a supernova is an explosion of the stars which emits a huge amount of energy in a single moment, and the tourism of Novi Sad is exactly an example of a vertiginous rise. The figures show that there were almost 25% more of the guests who stayed in the city than last year. In 2019, the City will be The European Youth Capital, and in 2021 – The European Capital of Culture. There are many individuals and organizations behind these successes, but the Tourism Organization is in charge of coordinating all actors and prudent media campaigns. It received the award due to an impressive scope and quality of its promotional publications, excellent media campaigns, imaginative sightseeing tours, tourist signalization, etc. The famous magazine Lonely Planet declared them one of the best world destinations for the year 2019, calling Novi Sad “an elegant and relaxed city”.
Knights’ all-around in Požarevac
The Equestrian Games of Ljubičevo have been held for 55 years. The unique spectacle of the Games is the knights’ all-around, inclusive of the disciplines of hitting the target with an arch and arrow, hitting the target with a mace or spear, sabre-cutting, and courier riding. The true festival of the equestrian sport is also the opening ceremony with a procession. Požarevac is one of the rare Serbian cities with a long tradition of horse breeding. The thoroughly renovated Horse Farm of Ljubičevo is deserving for that. “We’ve opened the kids’ adventure park, arranged the trim tracks, routed the forest equestrian paths, and renovated the horse riding and dressage school and the stables… Tourism is what we focus the development of our city on. I like to say that we’ve got the three supporting pillars of tourism – the Viminacium Archaeological Park, the Horse Farm of Ljubičevo, and the Equestrian Games of Ljubičevo,” said Bane Spasović, the president of the Municipality of Požarevac.
Robinzon’s hidden Serbia
The Robinzon Agency’s employees love Serbia and have an excellent knowledge of it. That has encouraged them to give shape to the cultural and recreational tourism programs. Their current mission is to develop the Danube River Basin offer and enrich the program for cruisers docking in Serbia. For example, they have yoga on Avala since they consider that older tourists, who mainly cruise, also deserve to experience something special. Within The Hidden Serbia program, they promote villages, mountain and rafting routes. “Serbia’s greatest asset is good hosts, food and hospitality. We’ve prepared a few 15-days’ serials within the hiking and tracking program with Wikinger Reisen from Germany. Our guests are delighted,” says to us the director of the Robinzon, Ljubiša Nešanović.
Luxury in nature
The Premijer Aqua Hotel uses the thermal waters of Vrdnik Spa. There is an excellent Spa Center in it, with the outdoor and the indoor swimming-pools. Within the Hotel, there is also a specialist doctor’s office Aqua Medica. Together with the Hotel’s first-rank services and the beneficial water, it also offers its guests a privilege of spending time on the slopes of the National Park of Fruška Gora Mount. The Residences of Ivanjica household is also located in the nice nature of the rural landscape of Western Serbia. The Residence has a swimming-pool with a beach, and its guests especially praise the ethno-pub in which the hosts serve the victuals they grow themselves. Its guests are mainly foreigners, and their grade on the booking.com website is practically a pure ten.
Kuršumlija and Belgrade Fair
Radovan Raičević, the general director of Planika, has transformed a small-size enterprise into a company which is the pillar of the development of Kuršumlija and the whole region of Toplica today. With his team, he has created the brands such as Prolom Water, Prolom Banja Spa, Lukovska Banja Spa, and the Devil’s Town. The construction of a hotel in Lukovska Banja Spa is a new project, and if Kuršumlijska Banja Spa also becomes a part of the Planinka family, which is currently the subject matter of negotiations, Kuršumlija will become a unique municipality with three spas. Last year, the Belgrade Fair celebrated its 80th anniversary since establishment. Apart from tourism, which is convincingly “number one” in the region according to the number of exhibitors and visitors, there are also the other fair performances that attract numerous domestic and foreign exhibitors, and the Fair endeavors to additionally contribute to the building of the image of our country by carrying out its activities.
The eighth award for the doyen
The director of the NTOS has a discretionary right to award the Special Tourism Flower. This year, she decided to deliver this award to Slobodan Unković, who has educated generations of students on whom the tourism of Serbia rests today.
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