Construction of 20 new hotels planned in Belgrade by Expo

Construction of a pier for large tourist cruise ships is underway, which will serve as accommodation facilities in Belgrade during the specialized Expo exhibition. City Manager Miroslav Cuckovic spoke on the TV show “Hajde da razgovaramo” (“Let’s Talk”) about how Belgrade was preparing for the exhibition and what the dynamics of the planned works were. According to him, the most significant changes will be related to traffic, and the works, he added, must be completed by December 2026.

As Cuckovic said, several important institutions worked on preparing a traffic study that predicted that more than four million passengers would come to the Expo.

– I must say that the initial study said that there would be three million visitors. However, as the number of the registered countries grew, that estimate also grew, to the delight of us all. I think that Belgrade will truly be the center of the world in 2027 and I am sure that we will all be able to show together, primarily in our Serbian pavilion in Belgrade, and in all the others, what we have in store for humanity for the entire next century. What is happening now is a race against time, so we have two more full summer construction seasons, we have one more winter season, until December 2026, when everything should be completed – he said.

When asked whether this would be an additional pressure given the lack of parking spaces in Belgrade, Cuckovic said that a huge number of parking spaces had been created at the Expo site, namely some 11,000, given that at some point there would be 130,000 visitors who would arrive using all forms of transport.

– The most attractive way to arrive in Belgrade is certainly by river, and that is precisely why we are building this international pier. It’s that entire strip from the confluence of the Sava River and the Danube, along the Sava bank to Branko’s Bridge itself, which is about a kilometer and 300 meters. Given that these cruisers are about 130 meters long, this means that we will be able to accommodate ten ships at a time, and some estimates suggest that between 4,000-5,000 people can disembark in one day, given that these cruisers have a capacity of about 120, 130 to even 180 seats. That is why a new type of service in Belgrade will be those seven new terminals that will be equipped with a hundred electric buses so that all these people can get to the Expo site by public transport and Belgraders themselves can use the lines to go to that part of the city. What is most important for us as the city administration is that when the whole event is over, we will be able to use all these things at full capacity for the residents of Belgrade – he said.

Cuckovic emphasizes that all of the above must be completed by December 2026.

Accommodation capacities will be no less of a challenge, and Cuckovic says that when there are such large events, Serbia becomes a single entity.

– The event itself lasts three months, all accommodation facilities in Belgrade and the surrounding area will be at full capacity, but for Belgrade itself, the government, namely the Ministry of Economy, has issued a public call, and companies have applied that wanted to participate in it, namely the expansion or reconstruction of existing hotels, as well as the construction of completely new ones. So, to everything that currently exists in Belgrade, 20 new ones will be built, and 4 will be expanded, and we are sure that the number of people who come will have the opportunity to be adequately accommodated and enjoy Belgrade and that they will want to return after the Expo – he said.

Grad Beograd

City of Belgrade

Miroslav Čučković

construction of hotels

construction of pier