The European Union has continued to support the tourism sector in Serbia. After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, people working in tourism have faced many challenges. One of them is the implementation of necessary health and safety measures aimed at preventing the spread of the virus. The European Union’s donation of 662,000 Euros, which consists of valuable equipment and disinfection material, will enable people involved in tourism across the country to conduct their business in accordance with the set measures, in order to provide a safe stay for their guests. The project “#EUzaTebe – for cultural heritage and tourism” implemented this intervention within the anti-COVID measures. Each user is a part of the “Clean and Safe” voluntary certification scheme, an initiative for tourism companies to implement a range of measures that guarantee complete safety for guests.
After the ceremony attended by Sam Fabrizi, the Head of the European Delegation to the Republic of Serbia, Thomas Schieb, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, Jadranka Joksimović, Minister of EU Integration and Miroslav Knežević, Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Tourism, the distribution of “Clean and Safe” materials began and the equipment was donated directly to all Novi Sad hotels. The equipment packages also reached the Novi Sad Tourism Organization, which allocated the equipment and material that were granted to tourism facilities not covered by a direct donation and thus joined the prevention of the spread of Sars-Covid-19 virus and provided support and assistance to restaurants and providers of accommodation service. The donated equipment was handed over to “Salas 137” as well as three hostels: “Hostel Sova”, “Hostel A&A” and “Hostel City”, to which this assistance meant a lot due to the expected higher frequency of guests in their facilities in the upcoming period.
Bearing in mind that Novi Sad will hold the title of the European Capital of Culture in 2022, many events are planned that will contribute to a larger number of visitors in cultural institutions, in addition to the above-mentioned accommodation and catering facilities, disinfection material was also delivered to cultural institutions in Novi Sad – the City Museum of Novi Sad and the “Novi Sad 2022 – European Capital of Culture” Foundation, namely to “Svilara” Cultural Station.
In addition to supporting tourism through “Clean and Safe”, the EU has already allocated one million Euros through the “#EUzaTebe – for cultural heritage and tourism” Project, as a grant to the private tourism sector in eastern and southeastern Serbia. With this grant, the EU has significantly contributed to eliminating the consequences caused by the pandemic and enabled many private individuals to improve their tourist services.
“#EUzaTebe – for cultural heritage and tourism” is a project that began its work before the outbreak of the pandemic, in November 2019, with the aim of encouraging the development of tourism in eastern Serbia and the Lower Danube region. The project is funded by the European Union and the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany, and is implemented by the German Organization for International Cooperation GIZ.
