Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia Nikola Selakovic met today in Madrid with Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Zurab Pololikashvili, with whom he discussed ways and modalities for promoting the tourist offer of Serbia and the region within projects and mechanisms available to the World Tourism Organization.

Minister Selakovic said that Serbia attached great importance to cooperation with the UNWTO, that it would work on the further promotion of that cooperation and strive to be even more active in the programmes and projects of the Organization.

Pointing out that our country was very active in numerous bodies within the World Tourism Organization in the previous ten years, the Minister pointed out that the Serbian Government saw the tourism sector as one of the key drivers of development of both Serbia and the entire region.

The Serbian Foreign Minister underlined that the following tourism products were recognized as particularly important in Serbia: "city break" tourism, manifestations and events, mountain tourism, spa/wellness tourism, rural tourism, congress tourism, cultural heritage, nautical tourism, gastronomy and wine tourism, etc.

Selakovic pointed out that the importance that Serbia attached to tourism was also evidenced by the great incentives of the Serbian Government to investors, especially in spa tourism, as well as huge investments in road infrastructure throughout the country.

Furthermore, the Minister said that, previous and this year, the Serbian Government allocated significant funds to help the catering and especially the hotel sector and several packages of measures in the form of loans, one-time assistance and subsidies were adopted to encourage the recovery of this sector which was most severely affected by the pandemic.

The Serbian Foreign Minister emphasized that our country supported all efforts being made, both in the UNWTO and in other international organizations and forums, focused on recovery measures in all sectors directly related to tourism, such as catering, air and other modes of transport, culture, and that Serbia was active in projects in this area within other international organizations, such as UNESCO.