The Minister of Finance, Siniša Mali, and the Minister of Tourism and Youth, Husein Memic, announced that they will have "zero tolerance" for restaurateurs who advertise on Booking and AirBnB and provide accommodation services as unregistered entities that are not registered in the Central eTourist information system, i.e. restaurateurs who have not obtained a decision on categorization.
After the Government announced the cancellation of this platform in Serbia, representatives of Booking offered their help in solving this problem.
Mali and Memic pointed out that the goal is not to limit the work of the platform, which plays a significant role in enabling accommodation reservations in Serbia for a large number of tourists, but to ensure that the platform, as well as restaurateurs, operates in accordance with the current regulations of our country.
When the Government called Booking to account, representatives of this platform shifted the blame to people who rent out apartments in Serbia and do not pay taxes, while representatives of the formal tourism sector claim that such landlords actually put their clients "at risk" and therefore call for greater engagement state authorities in detecting such undeclared competitors.
Tourism in Serbia is constantly developing and brings an ever-increasing foreign exchange inflow that is already approaching the figure of two billion euros, an amount that is twice as large as that recorded for the whole of 2017.
The Minister of Tourism and Youth, Husein Memić, says that in the first eight months of 2024, the foreign exchange inflow from tourism amounted to 1,86 billion euros, that is, it is 13 percent higher compared to the same period last year.
Source: New Economy/Euronews
