• Opinions

Are the Protests detracting from or supporting tourism in Serbia?

  • Opinions
Text: Predrag Momčilović 30. May 2025.

For months Aleksandar Vučić has constantly repeated the mantra that the protests and blocakdes are harming the economy and that because of this, people are not coming to Serbia. In this constant complaining he’s being joined by employers in the tourism industry and tourism associations. Statistics do show that tourist activity in March of 2025 has indeed declined, but are the protests to blame for this, or have the protests perhaps contributed to a different kind of tourism?

During March 2025, Serbia registered an 11.1% decrease in the number of tourists, while overnight stays dropped by 14.6%. At first glance, these figures could support the claims made by the president and tourism associations, but let’s take a closer look. The same report states that overnight stays by domestic tourists decreased by 22.8%, while those by foreign tourists declined by only 5.4%. The sharpest drop in overnight stays occurred in mountain resorts, with a 28.1% decrease compared to March of 2024. In natural spas, overnight stays fell by 21.7%, while in cities the drop was only 7.5%.

Although the wave of protests and roadblocks has swept across all of Serbia, it’s evident that the protests are far more frequent and massive in urban areas, where the decline in tourism is significantly smaller. In spas and mountain resorts, where protests are practicaly nonexistent, the drop in overnight stays is much more pronounced, suggesting the cause lies elsewhere. Privatization and reduced accessibility to spa and mountain tourism, combined with climate change, have certainly contributed to this decline in tourism.

The main cause of the drop in the number of tourists and overnight stays in March is most likely the delay in the 2025 vacation voucher distribution program. This program has been in place since 2015 and is actually one of the few positive measures introduced by the Serbian Progressive Party regime. The system provided vouchers worth 10,000 dinars which enabled certain pensioners, students, the unemployed, recipients of caregiving assistance, and low-income workers to help cover vacation costs in Serbia. These voucher users often chose spas and mountain centers for their vacations, however, this year the distribution did not begin in early January as usual and was delayed until April 15, which made it impossible for potential users to redeem them in March or April, unlike the previous year. Additionally, the number of vouchers distributed in the first round was reduced from 100,000 to just 30,000, which will further reduce tourist numbers and overnight stays in the coming period unless there is an increase in distribution.

Now that we’ve addressed the tourism decline in areas where there are no protests, or where they are low-intesity blockades and protests let’s return to the major cities and see what the statistics say there. In Belgrade, overnight stays fell by 5.2%, in Novi Sad by 11.3%, in Niš by 2.6%, while in Kragujevac there was actually a 15.3% increase. Moreover, protests and blockades were similarly intense in December, January, and February, during which time the number of tourists and overnight stays rose in all the mentioned cities except Novi Sad—which is understandable, as people tend to avoid places where there’s a chance of a canopy collapsing and killing them.

Protest Tourism

It’s widely known that statistics can show us a lot, but it can also hide a great deal. What’s perhaps less known is that when you use numbers in an argument, people are more likely to believe you than if you rely on descriptive data. That’s why Aleksandar Vučić constantly talks in numbers; from GDP growth, wage growth, employment rates, investments, tourist numbers, to boxes of sardines, yet these figures often obscure the real truth. In this case, the truth is that geographic mobility in Serbia has actually increased due to the protests, but due to the rigidity of statistical systems, this can’t be fully confirmed with numbers.

According to regulations in Serbia, anyone who spends at least one night away from their place of residence in a hospitality or other tourist accommodation, whether for vacation, health, study, sports, religion, business, official missions, or gatherings is considered a tourist. This means you’re only a tourist if you pay for lodging; if you stay overnight at a friend’s, relative’s, or colleague’s place without paying and without being officially registered by the next day, you’re invisible to the system.

Therefore, students who walked, biked, or traveled in various ways from city to city and stayed with colleagues, at their universities, or camped in nature are invisible to the statistics. Likewise, all the food and drink they received from others along the way is invisible to GDP, because GDP and tourism figures only grow when money is part of the equation. This kind of non-monetary aid and exchange contributes not to the growth of statistics, but to the growth of solidarity.

It’s precisely this solidarity and the networks it creates that enabled tens of thousands of people to find free lodging in Niš, Kragujevac, Belgrade, Kraljevo, and Novi Pazar, all at the same time that many accommodations in those cities were overpriced due to the greed of those profiting from tourism.

And even if all of this were translated into statistics, it would show that overnight stays in these cities actually increased. For instance, around March 15th, during a major protest, five people slept over at the author’s apartment alone, and there are thousands of similar cases. Additionally, several thousand students stayed for multiple days with their classmates in universities. On just that one March 15th far more people spent the night in Belgrade than the statistical decrease of 9,411 would suggest. Moreover, in this non-commodified exchange, people could genuinely get to know one another and connect, which is, in the end, the most valuable currency for revolutionary change. It’s precisely the sense that something big may be happening in Serbia that is now attracting various people who want to witness how a process of social change unfolds.

Instead of mourning a few tourists more or less, Serbia should think carefully about what it wants to show to those who come. Rather than tossing around phrases and calling on the specialized Expo 2027, Serbia should strategically consider how to design socially and ecologically sustainable tourism, one that doesn’t aim solely to increase tourist numbers, and one that also acknowledges non-commodified forms of tourism.

This text was original published on the portal Mašina ↗

You are using an outdated browser which can not show modern web content.

We suggest you download Chrome or Firefox.