The goal - by 2025 to double the number of tourists and cruise ships

Director of the Port Governance Agency Vuk Perovic took part in the conference "Danube cruise travel trade masterclass 2016." held at the Metropol hotel in Belgrade.

The theme of the first Masterclass DCC were tourism trends globally and tourism in the Danube region.

Mr. Perovic presented the Agency's work and plans for the development of passenger port in Serbia. According to him, it is envisaged that by the end of 2017 will be declared new 16 passenger ports, 10 of which are on the Danube, Sava and 2 to 4 on the Tisa. He explained that the first initiator or the Agency itself is the best location for the proposed construction of a passenger port, then a public invitation after which will follow signing of the contract for 10 years and registration of operators in the register.

He recalled that during the first 9 months of this year in Serbia was 920 landing ships and 80 000 passengers, and pointed out that more than half of passenger vessels recorded in Belgrade. "If we compare the figures with those in Serbia in Austria, they would see that in Vienna the same period landed about 4,000 ships with more than half a million passengers. We must not forget that Vienna and Belgrade have almost the same number of inhabitants, and therefore when you succeed to attract at least 10 per cent of passengers from Vienna, doubled the number of tourists in Belgrade, "said Perovic.

Serbia has in 2015 invested about 6 million in local government, in order to develop passenger ports. Funds were provided for the construction of the pontoon, infrastructure and accessory port. Perovic said that the Agency is involved in these projects declaring the port area and the launch of public calls and added that the expected results of these investments for the period 2025 to increase the number of tourists from 80 000 to 130 000 per year and almost double the number of passenger ships. Since passenger water transport is a permanent trend of growth, it is realistic to expect these growth projections, he said.

Journey cruise offers the possibility of visiting several destinations at the same time, a passenger port development is important for economic development and tourism in the local governments. Travel docks are the same as for local and airports of the capital and thus open the door to Serbia to Western Europe, concluded Perovic.