DOING BUSINESS IN
SERBIA
Serbia tourism and hostels in Belgrade
A few words on Serbian economy
 The
official currency in Serbia is the Serbian dinar. The GDP growth rate was 7.5%
in 2007 and GDP per capita was $6541. Serbia's GDP is 63.5% comprised of
services, 24.2% industry, and 12.3 agriculture%. The inflation rate in 2006 was
6.6% and the official unemployment rate was 18.5%. The main industries are
pharmaceutical, agricultural machinery, electrical and communication equipment,
paper and pulp, transportation equipment, food. Besides the very high
unemployment rate, one of the biggest problems is the foreign trade deficit,
estimated at above $9 billion in 2007.
The
European Union is Serbia's major trade partner.
 In
the 1980’s the position of Serbia was relatively good compared to the rest of
eastern Europe at the time. However, the 1990's brought wars, hyperinflation,
economic sanctions and massive destruction of infrastructure in the 1999
bombing, all of which significantly shrank the economy. Recovery has been rapid
since democratic changes in 2000, and therefore Serbia is frequently termed the
“Balkan tiger”. However, even today Serbia's GDP is still below the 1990 levels
and the political situation, corruption and other issues are preventing stronger
and more stable economic development.
Investing
in Serbia is a good opportunity and there are numerous blue chip market
entrants.
Tourism in Belgrade and Belgrade Hotels
Belgrade
was one of the major tourist destinations in this part of Europe in the 80s.
Today Belgrade accounts for around 35% of the total tourists visiting Serbia and
is still the biggest city to visit in Serbia and overall Balkan region. However,
compared to Central European attractions like Prague or Budapest, Belgrade's
resources are still very underutilized. This is especially true for leisure
tourism as more than 70% of
hotel rooms in Belgrade are rented to business
travelers.
Belgrade is
in an extremely good geographic location as it lies on the crossroads of major
routes connecting Asia to Europe. Nevertheless, Belgrade has a much lower number
of overnight stays than Budapest and Prague - primarily because of less
developed business, the reputation acquired during the nineties, but mostly
because of underdeveloped marketing. We hope that BelgradeEye.com city guide is one
step in improving that state.
Most hotels
in Belgrade are three star hotels (29.7%) and four star
Belgrade hotels (27.4%),
however it is important to note that there are only 9 five and four star hotels
in Belgrade. Unlike Prague, Warsaw and Budapest, hotel chains in Belgrade do not
have the majority of overnight stays – however there are some indications that
this will start to change very soon.
The highest demand for hotels in
Belgrade is fulfilled by 2 prominent Belgrade hotels - Intercontinental Belgrade
hotel and Hyatt Belgrade Hotel.
There are
numerous newly built hotels in Serbia, and most of those are built in Belgrade.
A recent trend is set by so called boutique hotels – basically smaller and nicer
hotels with a special focus on luxurious apartments.
Belgrade Hostels
Let us
share one secret with you – the founder and CCO of Belgrade Eye city guide, Mr.
Nenad Lazarevic, was also the founder of the first legal private hostel in
Belgrade in 2005 – the Open Belgrade hostel. Today, there are many hostels in
Belgrade – according to what we know around 30 solely in the central Belgrade
area.
In terms of hostels, Belgrade is more
developed then most of the neighboring capitals. Nevertheless, it seems that
there are still many things that should be done in this area. Hostels in
Belgrade vary, both in size and the quality they offer – from larger state owned
hostels such as Belgrade hostel Jelica, to the smaller hostels such as Hostel
Belgrade in Kralja Milana. There are no official national standards that need to
be fulfilled for hostels in Serbia besides the rules on minimal accommodation
standards, however in terms of service quality they match if not overmatch many
high quality hotels in Belgrade.
There are no official and reliable data on hostels in Belgrade and we are working on creating a serious survey on this accommodation type. For more information on hostelling in general please visit the Belgrade Eye
accommodation FAQ, and our section on
hostels if you want to book
Belgrade hostels.
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