NEWS FLASH
Serbia is expected to see record air travel volumes during the first week of May with demand increasing 40% over the same period last year. This is primarily the result of the May Day and Easter public holiday falling one after the other, creating an over weeklong break for many. Furthermore, the public holidays will coincide with the spring school holidays. According to the Association of Serbian Travel Agents (YUTA) the most sought-after air travel market during the week-long holiday period is Spain, with Valencia emerging as a standout performer. Lisbon, Barcelona, Rome, and Milan are also seeing strong demand. “Valencia is an absolute hit this year together with Lisbon. They are in high demand, everything is sold out”, one of the tour operators noted. Among far-away destinations, the most popular during the holiday period is Zanzibar, followed by the Maldives, Seychelles, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico.
We always hear such news, but we all still do not see additional frequencies to Spain( easter) for example. Zanzibar continues to be missing….
ReplyDeletePeople are using European hubs to transfer to those destinations, at least solo travelers. 40% demand increase is crazy, I fly out of BEG in early May and I expect the airport to be super busy
DeleteWill continue to be missed, more likely to see JU start Zanzibar or Phuket than them travel agents.
Delete+1
DeleteTime to Alicante and after to Tenerife
ReplyDeleteThe sleeping Serbian tour operators. How long they slept until they remembered Spain.
ReplyDeleteSupply in Serbia does not meet demand. There are so many new possibilities, we can easily have 10 far away exotic destinations.
DeleteMy guess is that JU will deploy the A330 to the Maldives or Thailand.
DeleteI was reading on an Italian blog about Turkmenistan Airlines flights to Milan, it was talking about the closedness of Turkmenistan and also people were mentioning Algeria as such a country. Is it really hard to visit? Last year we had flights there.
ReplyDeleteAlgeria is much simpler than Turkmenistan, but still quite difficult. Turkmenistan is harder to visit as a tourist than North Korea
DeleteDrew binsky made it
DeleteSo do we know who is boosting capacity when JU & W6 are limited? I see today OS is sending two A320 to Belgrade.
ReplyDeleteNo E195. It's E95 flight.
DeleteTwo OS A320 departures today at 07.00 and I think at 15.20.
DeleteYes, two OS A320 already gone and one AT76 in the evening for Vienna
DeleteYes, the second A320 was supposed to an E95 but it was upgraded due to strong demand out of BEG.
DeleteI wouldn't trust anything what agencies say, tourist or real estate..same same
ReplyDeleteLet's first develop a tourism product here and attract tourists to Serbia in the ski resorts in Belgrade or even on the Danube, Sava. I think that such associations should do more instead of talking about how many Serbs visit Spain or Greece. Yes, of course, Serbia does not have a maritime component, but the potential for everything else is here and waiting. We see Chinese, Jews, Turks, Russians more and more Italians, why not increase these numbers?!?!?
ReplyDeleteForeign arrivals.
DeleteJanuary+February: 240.164 (+11.8%)
February: 117.252 (+11.1%)
January and February results:
Chinese: 12.754 (+97.4%)
Turkey: 16.137 (+41.3%)
Russia: 24.845 (-9.6%)
Italy: 5.958 (+15.3%)
Germany: 9.219 (+4.9%)
Foreign arrivals are growing so I don't know what you are going on about.
Foreign arrivals doesn't necessarally mean that they are tourists..I reckon that half of those Chineses are not tourists , and probably 80% of Russians are not tourists as well...Our capacity in attracting foreign tourists is very poor..
DeleteI don't deny that they are growing but it is small, ski resorts for example can easily accommodate TUI, Jet2.com, easyJet, we need to bring back the British. I remember a Thomson flight to Nis. A very, very interesting fact is that quite a few tourists from Israel visit the Greek ski resorts in the winter, my information comes from a person from Novi Sad who works in Tel Aviv for Arkia. Why is Serbia sleeping! We need more traffic, but also advertising.
DeleteHow are tourists counted? As far as I know, they are divided into two or even three types. Visiting relatives and friends, vacation in a hotel of the 7, 14 day type and one of the "On the Market in Romania" type/excursions.
DeleteI also know that they don't count every foreign arrival as a tourist. I don't know what system they use. However by that logic every country would be in the same situation as Serbia as I don't know any that asks you openly what the purpose of your trip is. I was in Paris two months ago for work. How did the French count me? I did not inform anyone of the purpose of my trip.
DeleteIts easy to count tourists..Number of beds per night sold in every type of accommodation- hotels, hostels, guest houses, Airbnb..According to our law, all foreign tourists need to be registered in police( with address of their dwelling)...The ones that sleep at their families are not real tourists anyway, they come to visit family..
DeleteBelgrade is packed with foreign people, folks.
DeleteThey get their stats from the city/tourist tax data, which includes all registered hotels, hostels, and registered private accommodations (Airbnbs and such). However, even in private accommodation, we are obliged to report people staying. It can quickly be done through the eUprava portal. Police have the right to ask you for confirmation of where you stayed and fine you if it is not reported properly. Not sure how enforced it is but it is our duty to know and comply
DeleteIn 20years visiting Belgrade up to 10times a year I have never been asked where i stayed (and only once ever registered)
DeleteTour operators are currently on the rise in eastern countries such as Serbia, Romania, Macedonia, Moldova, etc. Although here I am not including the trend of people traveling individually or as some enthusiasts do solo.
ReplyDeleteI would say that both agents and individual travel are on the rise with the development of the Internet.
DeleteI hope soon to Belgrade - Gran Canaria LPA
ReplyDeleteBut never with the sleeping travel agencies.... They like only Turkey and Greece. After many years we have Spain.....
DeleteWell its gonna be interesting as a prelude to what is coming in the summer. Menzies will see a test drive of what is gonna happen in the summer if they don`t come to their senses and correct their mistakes with shameful "raise" of the salaries by 5000 rsd. Salaries are due to be raised by minimum of 30 percent or there is gonna be one hell of a summer. Remember last year fiasco with all those lost bags, cancellations, delays... it will have been walk in the park compared to this summer if things don`t get better. Lot of quitting, lot of sick leaves and the rest will work with a "pain in the groins" as Serbs love to say it...
ReplyDelete