Round table was held in Nis on 2.August 2021. Venue of the Round table was hotel „Tami Residence“. Participants in the round table were: high representatives of the Ministries of the Republic of Bulgaria and Republic of Serbia, representatives of touristic and cultural organizations from Bulgaria (Pernik and Kyustendil region), touristic and cultural organizations from Serbia (Nisava and Pcinja region), representatives of the Touristic organization of Serbia, Eu Centre Serbia, representatives of the City of Nis and Chamber of Commerce of Serbia, Nis, as well as representatives of the consulate of the Republic of Bulgaria in Serbia.
High representatives of the Ministries of Serbia and Bulgaria who took part at the Round table was: Ms. Maria Belkoleva, Deputy Minister of tourism of the Republic of Bulgaria, Mr. Dimitar Tsanev, Consul of Republic Bulgaria, Ms. Kristina Askovic, representative of the Ministry of European Integrations of the Republic of Serbia, Ms. Danijela Vicentijevic, representative of the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications of the Republic of Serbia. In front of the City of Nis, Ms. Dragana Petkovic, director of the Touristic organization of Nis and prof dr Misko Zivic, City council of Nis were participated at the round table.
Moderator for the round table was Danijela Vucic, Eu Info Point. Working language was English.
Total 36 persons participated the Round table.
The multimedia application with mobile application and a research was presented, which includes the most important tourist potentials and resources of the border area. The public was informed about all the significant results achieved within the work in the project so far after the round table held in Nis.
According to the participants at the round table, the mobile application is easy to download and very easy to access the presented locations. On the multimedia application itself, there is also the option of mapping locations where, by choosing the place you want to visit, you get an insight into the route you need to cross, infrastructure and accommodation.
“I am very happy to see that I see great interest in this topic from both sides. The period of the pandemic has left its mark, and now we see that step-by-step tourism and all these activities are starting to involve a lot of people. With this project, we want to show that we have very beautiful, well-known traditional places and we want to present to Serbian tourists cross-border tourist potentials through multimedia application”, says Maria Belkoleva, Deputy Minister of Tourism of Bulgaria.
Kristina Askovic from the sector for cross-border and transnational cooperation programs of the Ministry of European Integration points out that cross-border cooperation is a small part of the European Union’s assistance to member states and those who are not, but that it shows the core potential of association, unity and cooperation.
“On that micro-plan, you can see the whole structure of EU support – how much is being learned, how much is being improved and how much we see that Europe as a continent is one entity, where we have a common past and a common future,” Kristina Askovic added.
The Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications of Serbia supports projects aimed at creating a joint integrated tourist product, and that is why cross-border cooperation projects are extremely important, says Danijela Vićentijević, an independent advisor in the tourism sector of this ministry.
“By creating a joint offer, we become competitive on the regional, European and world tourist market. What is good in the project of integrated tourist offer of Serbia and Bulgaria is that it includes tourist products that are recognized as priorities by the tourism development strategy, namely rural tourism, special interests, events and cultural heritage in the function of tourism development”concludes Vicentijevic.
Multimedia application will be promoted in media and press conferences in Bulgaria and Serbia and on that way will be visible and ready to use for visitors and citizens of both countries and EU.
