State Secretary for Tourism Goran Petkovic opened the 33rd International Tourism Fair in Belgrade on Thursday, which is held alongside the wine and souvenir fairs.

There will be 711 Serbian and 139 foreign exhibitors at the event, including the world's most popular companies in that business. Croatia is cited as a partner of the event.

The wine fair has 105 participants.

The Serbian Tourism Organization is scheduled to present its programme, entitled Serbian Wine Routes, which has already been promoted throughout Europe.

The fairs will be open until February 27. Visitors can enter until 6 p.m. on Thursday. Friday and Saturday working hours will be from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., while the Sunday hours will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The single ticket price is RSD 300, while group tickets are RSD 200.

Tourism is Serbian government's priority

Development of tourism is a priority for the Serbian government, as indicated by the fact that the government has become a member of the Executive Board of the World Tourism Organisation (WTO), Serbian State Secretary for Tourism Goran Petkovic stated on Thursday at the opening of the International Tourism Fair in Belgrade, which is being held at the same time as the Souvenirs and Wine Fair.

He stated that the fair will be dedicated to the Danube and wine routes, because these are the fields in which Serbia holds considerable potentials.

The Danube flows through three fourths of the country and connects Serbia with Europe, and regional tourist fairs are the right place to bring out the offers related to the Danube River, Petkovic said.

European Travel Commission Executive Director Petra Hedorfer delivered a speech at the fair's opening ceremony, saying that 2010 was an excellent year for global tourism as the number of travels increased by 6.7 per cent, reaching 935 million, which is the best result recorded in history so far.

However, Hedorfer said, Europe needs to promote its tourist potentials more as competition is fierce. She also added that the Danube is Europe's largest tourist attraction.

Croatian State Secretary for Tourism Ivo Mujo said that Serbian-Croatian cooperation in the domain of tourism is improving, as shown by the two countries' joint project 'Route of Roman Emperors.'

He noted that the number of flights between Belgrade and tourist destinations on the Adriatic coast is increasing and added that this tendency should help step up the exchange of tourists, which has been on the rise over the past few years.