Serbia to get Djerdap Riviera as unique tourist destination

Eastern Serbia is a region of exceptional natural beauty, rich cultural heritage and archaeological sites, but the tourist offer of this part of our country is still limited to a few individual locations and needs to be unified so that tourism can become a significant economic sector.

That is why the process of establishing the Destination Management Organization (DMO) Djerdap Riviera, a modern model of tourism management in the area of Eastern Serbia, has been launched these days, the director of the Association of the Tourism Industry of Serbia (ATIS) Dejan Veselinov told Biznis.rs.

On this occasion, an initial meeting was held last weekend, which was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Tourism and Youth, the Tourism Organization of Serbia, GIZ, the Danube Competence Center, as well as representatives of institutions responsible for the protection and management of cultural and historical heritage in the area of the Djerdap National Park and UNESCO Geopark, as well as representatives of local tourist organizations and the hotel industry from the municipalities of Golubac, Majdanpek and Kladovo.

- The concept of the Djerdap Riviera combines the exceptional natural values of the Djerdap National Park, the rich cultural and historical heritage of the Golubac Fortress and the archaeological site of Lepenski Vir, as well as other tourist attractions along the Danube. Through more efficient management and joint action by all relevant stakeholders, the Djerdap Riviera has the potential to become a strong regional brand and an important development engine for this part of Serbia - explained Veselinov.

This direction of development is fully aligned with the Draft Strategy for the Development of Tourism in Serbia until 2030, which encourages the formation of a DMO model and strong connections between the public and private sectors in order to improve the competitiveness of tourist destinations.

Veselinov says that the meeting was organized by the Association of the Tourism Industry of Serbia (ATIS), which participates in this process as an independent voice of the Serbian tourism industry, with the mission to improve coordination between the public and private sectors, strengthen standards in tourism and support the development of modern, market-sustainable destination models.

- In recent years, the tourist offer on the Danube and in Eastern Serbia has been significantly improved through the development of infrastructure, improvement of the quality of services and creation of new tourist products - from cruising tourism and heritage interpretation, to active and wine tourism. This has made this area recognized as one of the most promising areas for the further development of tourism in Serbia - emphasizes the director of ATIS.

Speaking about the destination management organization, which is not so well known in our market, Veselinov says that this term appeared because tourist destinations, which are increasingly taking the form of integral tourist products, competition is getting stronger, and visitors, which are increasingly numerous and whose requirements are increasingly specific, are becoming a measure for comparison and competitiveness of destinations.

- Managing a destination, that is, planning, organizing, controlling and leading and having a vision for the future is the role of a destination management organization. It is a vision, a way to collect additional financial resources, influence state institutions, as well as reducing the operating costs of all those who participate in the creation of an integral tourist product - he says.

Eastern Serbia is one of the most sparsely populated parts of the country, traditionally dominated by the mining, energy and agricultural sectors. The Danube, as the largest European river, offers great tourist potential, and thanks to the development of transport infrastructure and the construction of the Danube Corridor, the conditions are being created for this region to develop more quickly as a tourist destination.

In recent years, Golubac has experienced a real tourist boom, after the thorough reconstruction of the Golubac Fortress, which has recorded around 600,000 visits in four years, but also thanks to religious tourism, which brings tens of thousands of believers to the nearby Tumane Monastery every year.