German vacationers go against the trend and travel more frequently
The problems of year 2008 left their mark on Serbia, too, forcing a setback on the travel country after eight years of continuous growth. And reaching the previous year’s leap to 696,045 visitors again in these economically difficult times would have resembled a small miracle. Still: With 646,494 registered foreign visitors, the small Balkan state can hold its own in the international competition, even though this represents a minus of almost seven percent.
Fortunately, fewer visitors generated more overnight stays, resulting in a decline of only five percent, here – from 1,475,675 nights in 2007 to 1,398,887 for the whole of 2008. Backdrop: the average length of stay slightly rose again to reach 2.2 days (2007: 2.1).
Stays of 2.2 days length were also, once more, the 2008 average for German travelers in Serbia. The sensational development leap to nearly 30 percent more arrivals in 2007 may not have been met – but there was still an overall plus. There were 37,194 German visitors in 2008 (2007: 36,356), a 2.3 percent growth. With 80,819 overnight stays, a very slight increase (0.3 percent) in nights was observed as compared to 2007 (80,571). Excluding tourists from the former Yugoslavian regions, Germany thus accounts for the largest number of overnight stays among all foreign visitors.
With such stability during the crisis, Germany shows once again why it is one of the most important source markets and, above all, economic partners of the country, alongside Serbia’s directly neighboring countries and France, Great Britain, Italy and Austria. After all, Germany is Serbia’s main trade partner in the EU with an eleven percent share of the country’s foreign trading volume. Until November 2008, alone, the trading volume rose by 28 percent, with German imports and Serbian exports simultaneously increasing by 29 and 26 percent, respectively. Thus, Germany is the third-most important export partner (after Bosnia and Herzegovina & Montenegro), and second-most important import partner, even (after the Russian Federation).
Recent figures show that the tourism sector is positioning itself as a supporting branch of the Serbian economy, gaining importance in the meantime. For the entire year of 2008, earnings from tourism amounted to 944 million US dollars – translating to a nine percent plus as compared to the overall result of the previous year. The gross domestic product of Serbia grew by an overall 6.1 percent in 2008.
