A total of 1.87 million tourists visited Serbia in the period from January to November 2010, which is 2 percent less compared to the same period in 2009, the National Tourism Organisation of Serbia released on Tuesday, referring to the data of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia.

The Office recorded visits by 1.23 local tourists, which represents a 5 percent less than in the same period the year before and constitutes 66 percent of the total number of tourist visits. According to the data, 636.360 foreign tourists visited the country in this period, which constitutes a 5 percent increase relative to the same period in 2009.

Serbia recorded 6 million overnight stays, which is 6 percent less than in the period from January to November 2009. Of this total, 4.65 million overnight stays were recorded with local tourists, which is 8 percent less than in 2009 and makes up 77 percent of the total number of overnights in the period from January to November 2010, while 1.35 million overnights were made by foreign tourists, which is 2 percent less than in the same period the previous year.

In terms of distribution of overnight stays, 43 percent of local tourists visited spa areas, followed by mountain resorts with 27 percent of overnights. Vrnjacka Banja, central Serbia, was the most visited spa region from January to November 2010, and recorded 492.761 overnights, which represents a 9 percent drop compared to the same period 2009. Other top destinations in Serbia comprise the Zlatibor Mountain, in western Serbia, Belgrade and spa centre Sokobanja in eastern Serbia.

Most visits by foreign tourists were recorded in Belgrade, where they made 729.120 overnight stays, which is 5 percent less than in the same period in 2009, followed by Novi Sad and Zlatibor.

Most overnights were made by tourists from Bosnia-Herzegovina and totalled 138.208, which is 7 percent less than in the same period 2009. According to this parameter, next in line are Montenegro, Slovenia, Croatia and Germany.

After the negative tendencies which marked the first half of the year, first positive signs were recorded in August, and the trend continued through September, October and November, which contributed to improvement of Serbia's results in the domain of tourism.