Belgrade: Tourists are coming, buses have nowhere to park

It is often heard how in Belgrade and there are more and more in Serbia foreign tourists and how it contributes to the development of the domestic economy. It is true, tourist guides told Vreme, but on the ground there are many problems in organizing tours of tourist attractions with groups.

There is a lack of organized stops for boarding and disembarking passengers, of which there are not enough in Belgrade, and those that do exist often do not accept a sufficient number of vehicles or are poorly marked.

The authorities are beating their chests that an increasing number of cruise ships dock in Belgrade, but it seems that during the reconstruction of the pier, more thought was given to ceremonial openings than to the technical conditions for the reception of passengers arriving in the capital from the river.

Simple math

The passenger terminal of the Sava pier in Belgrade can accommodate up to six cruise ships at the same time. At least four buses are required per cruise ship, and for this purpose there is a stop for only five buses. The math is simple.

"Therefore, space is needed for at least twenty buses." There were so many of them before the reconstruction, and now that part is completely dysfunctional, transformed into a plateau that looks empty," tourist guide Nevena Čvarković Božilov from the Premium Tours agency, which deals with the reception of guests from cruise ships, told Vreme.

"We also asked for a ramp to be built so that only buses for international cruises would come to pick up passengers," she adds.

Thus, on the previous Saturday morning, two columns could be seen next to the pier, with a total of eighteen buses welcoming passengers. Another column formed along the road, which threatens safety and complicates the already slow traffic in the city. This is the scene every weekend, and often on weekdays as well.

According to Čvarković Božilov, a big problem is that in those places that are marked as only for cruise ships, there are often buses with foreign license plates at night.

"Communal militia and Parking service rarely respond to our calls, almost never. They only come when we insist on calling every five minutes," she says.

Not accessible to people with disabilities

"The biggest problem is at the French Embassy, ​​where there is only one bus stop." That's why even the embassy is protesting," continued Čvarković Božilov.

"We need a place for people with disabilities, on par with Kalemegdan. We proposed the possibility of entering where the ramp is near the 'Cvijeta Zuzorić' Pavilion and paying for disembarkation at that place," explained Nevena Čvarković Božilov.

As he says, due to the increasing number of people with disabilities who come, especially on cruise ships, where the passengers are mostly older people, easier access to the Belgrade Fortress should be made.

It is to some extent Student Square, but there are also many buses parked and not moving, so that is not a solution either.

Insufficient and unsafe

Tour guide Veljko Antonijević explains for "Vreme" what are the problems with the stops outside the pier.

"The first problem is that there are not enough stops for tourist buses, then those that do exist are not well organized, there are not enough places per stop, and the third problem is that there are a large number of citizens who try to park their cars there temporarily or permanently," he said. Antonijević.

Such is the case, for example, in Skerlićeva Street in Vračar, near the Temple, where there is a complete collapse in traffic almost every day. Apart from the fact that not enough buses can fit in the designated place, the problem is often caused by illegally parked vehicles in front of the surrounding cafes.

According to the observation of the "Vremen" reporter, you can see a "falcon's eye" of the communal militia there every day, but it seems that the "whites" only do shift handovers there, ignoring the parking problem.

"There is also a problem with the stop on Franca Street, which is intended for disembarking passengers going to Skadarlija," he says. When the bus stops there, all other vehicles are forced to go around it by crossing the full line, says Antonijević.

He even suspects that foreign drivers "subsidize" the police in order to leave the buses longer in Student Square.

"We should put pressure on transporters and drivers in a cultured way and through punishment to really use those stops as intended, for up to five minutes," explains Antonijević.

The stop for disembarking passengers on Studentski trg is one of the busiest in Belgrade, but a maximum of three buses can stop there at the same time.

That is why it is not uncommon to see tourist buses lining up all the way to the taxi stand, which leads to traffic jams. And there are often quarrels with the citizens of Belgrade, because tourists disembark at the public transport stop.

At Tesla without stops

At the Nikola Tesla Museum, one of the most visited, there is no stop for tourist buses, so passengers disembark at the public transport stations on Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra.

There are also stops for one bus each at the Moskva Hotel and at the Old Palace.

For one large and one small bus, there is a "blue lane" for tourist buses at the Zemun pier, where there is also a collapse due to the extremely small roundabout next to which the bus stop is located, and from which the car park is entered, and a column is formed.

The only adequate stop that Belgrade can boast of is the one at the Museum of Yugoslavia.

Solid at the airport

According to the tourist guide Veljko Antonijević, after a long period of chaos at the airport due to renovations, it is now somewhat organized. However, he says, the price of four thousand dinars for one boarding of passengers is not small.

"It is acceptable for large buses with 40 or 50 passengers, but not for sprinters with less than 20 passengers." Different categories of vehicles should be introduced and prices formed accordingly. The advantage is that there is no time limit and there is enough space, so the bus can wait even when the flight is late," says Antonijević.

According to him, departures are strictly regulated, with the time limit being only five minutes. This is fine for small buses in this case, but not for large buses.

Because disembarking fifty passengers, who all need to take their luggage and check that they haven't forgotten anything, usually takes at least fifteen minutes.

Wait in line or pay 540 dinars per hour

"Most of the time, I send drivers to park on '25.' maju', where the price is 180 dinars per hour, which is acceptable and relatively close to the center. The disadvantage is that the parking lot of 'Gale Muškatirović' is not big enough," continues the interlocutor of "Vremena".

"BAS is ridiculously expensive, it should be more affordable and of course we should introduce many more temporary stops and a few more large parking lots for big buses," noted Antonijević.

In addition to the fact that only nine buses stop at the "Milan Gale Muškatirović" parking lot, which belongs to the Parking Service, some foreign drivers also complained that their bus was stolen there during the day, and that when reporting the case to the police, it turned out that there was no video surveillance.

The only official secured parking for buses is the one behind the bus station, which belongs to JP Belgrade bus station, but parking a bus with foreign license plates there costs 540 dinars per hour.

For a bus that, after arriving in Belgrade and accommodating guests in hotels, is parked from the afternoon until the morning tour of the city, it costs over 9.000 dinars, two or three times more than in similar parking lots in Athens or Budapest.

For the benefit of all

"A lot has been done in recent years, but it is not enough." Tourism is developing a lot in our country and we need to develop much, much more. We need to become a serious tourist destination in every sense," says Antonijević.

"Both the state and the public need to understand that even a potato producer in Ivanjica benefits from the fact that a foreigner ate a meal anywhere in Serbia, but that it should not remain only in words, but should be really invested in," concludes Veljko Antonijević.