Page 46 - bne_May 2021_20210501

46 I Southeast Europe bne May 2021
He said that in February there was the most interest in Zanzibar, while in March the focus switched to the Maldives. Other preferred destinations offered by the agency include Bali and Sumatra in Indonesia and Ayurveda treatments in India, but those trips were postponed due to the COVID-19 situation.
“Since the situation regarding the pandemic is changing quickly we are following the situation at destinations daily and if necessary we can postpone the tour or suggest a different exotic
packages for April are already sold out, according to the agency’s website. Dubai is another attractive location for Serbian tourists.
Serbia made a fast and early start to vaccinating its population, having secured vaccines from multiple sources. Serbian government officials have said that the fact that Serbia is a leader in Europe in terms of the number of people vaccinated makes negotiations related to traveling to other countries significantly easier. Serbian PM Ana Brnabic said
wave of the pandemic will subside, and to what extent Southeast European holiday destinations will open up to tourists.
However, Croatia, which was one of
the first markets to reopen to tourists
in 2020 is doing the same this year. It announced its reopening on April 1 after which more than 22,000 people flooded into the country for Easter weekend.
Greece completely shut down its borders last year, but the full-of- beaches destination has decided to open to tourists for the upcoming season. Under the agreement reached by the tourism ministers of Serbia and Greece, Serbian tourists can go to Greece from mid-April so they will be able to celebrate the Orthodox Easter holidays at the beginning of May on Greek beaches. Low-cost carrier Wizz Air has announced two new flights from Belgrade to the Greek islands of Santorini and Crete from June.
People from North Macedonia will
most likely be allowed to visit the neighbouring country (with a PCR or antigen test, or vaccine) from May 14, as media reported, but the official decision is still pending. From Skopje, Bogoevska said that as summer approaches the interest in travel to Greece, Croatia, Turkey and other near abroad destinations is increasing, though Turkey has recently been reporting record infection numbers.
“We already have a lot of interest
and reservations for our Antalya charter programme, Kusadasi bus package in Turkey, hotel and private accommodation in Greece, as well as for Montenegro and Croatia,” she said.
And for those who are not thrilled by distant destinations, travelling to local tourist sites is still possible and all three countries have a lot to offer in that regard. Slovenia and Serbia have their spa and mountain centres, while North Macedonia has its lakes, of which the Ohrid, the pearl of the Balkans, is the most beautiful. Even with more overseas destinations opening up, staycations appear to be here to stay, at least in 2021.
“Since the situation regarding the pandemic is changing quickly we are following the situation at destinations daily"
destination to our guests, if the situation get worse between the time of booking and the departure,” Rot said.
Slovenia has experienced several strong waves of the pandemic, and the authorities imposed another lockdown from April 1 to 11, the third in just over a year, including border restrictions, which will affect the tourist sector.
Closed borders particularly affected Slovenia’s outbound tourism. Pre-pandemic, total international expenditures by Slovenian tourists abroad totalled $1.68bn in 2019. Among the companies most affected by the crisis in Slovenia are travel agencies and tour operators, and only those catering to the domestic market were helped by the government’s voucher scheme to encourage travel to local tourist sites.
A gift in the desert
Jungle Tribe is one of the most popular travel agencies in Serbia that offers exotic destinations throughout the year. Now, when most of Europe is closed, the Red Sea resort of Hurghada in Egypt has become the hottest destination for affordable travel. The average salary in Serbia is €537, half of that in Slovenia, and a nine-day stay in Hurghada at the beginning of May is coming in at under €450. Some of Jungle Tribe’s Hurghada
www.bne.eu
recently that by the end of April, 40%
of the population will be vaccinated at least with one jab. This is expected to encourage people to travel more without fear of infection.
This is good news for Serbian travel agencies, after more than 2,000 people in Serbia lost their jobs in tourism due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the director of the National Association of Tourist Agencies of Serbia (YUTA), Aleksandar Senicic. According to Senicic, domestic travel agencies that organised trips abroad previously had
a turnover of about €1.5bn each year. Last year the turnover was just €150mn, which means that more than €1.2bn of turnover was lost.
According to Knoema, Serbian tourists abroad spent $1.8bn in 2019, 9.9% up from the previous year. The biggest increase was registered in 2018 of an annual 19% to $1.64bn. Since 2010 the average annual growth rate was 7.71%.
Closer to home
In normal years, people from the region tend to holiday closer to home. While Croatia is a traditional summer destination for Slovenians, Greece
is more popular among Serbs and Macedonians. There’s still a lot of uncertainty about when the current