Belgrade Hotel Summit brings together over 250 attendees – Serbia has great potential for development of spa tourism

(From the Hotel Summit conference) More than 250 attendees from 61 hotel brands and side industries and institutions attended the second annual Hotel Summit Serbia conference on March 21, 2019, at Hotel Hyatt Regency Belgrade, organized by the InHotel business magazine.

The conference brought together interesting presenters, and numerous topics important to the development of hotel industry were addressed.

– The Hotel Summit Serbia conference, organized by InHotel magazine, has shown for the second year in a row that it has the strength and the authority to bring together over 250 participants from 60 hotel brands. I am glad that the large number of hotels, but also umbrella institutions, recognize our contribution to the development and enhancement of the hotel tourism sector. We are also glad that we’ve turned Belgrade into a meeting place for the local hotel industry and a large number of international and local experts. We believed that Serbia needed an event of this format, and the number of attendees and their impressions confirm this – Vojislava Pesic, the director of the conference, told us.

Which trends will mark the hospitality sector in the years to come, what is glumping tourism and what are the requirements for this concept of tourism to take root, how do increasingly popular platforms Hotelbeds and Expedia work...? These are only some of the topics addressed at this year’s Hotel Summit.

It was interesting to hear how foreigners see Serbia as a travel destination, which was discussed by Snezana Savic of IPSOS Serbia.

– What’s very encouraging is that Serbia is recording an increase in the number of visits. It is also apparent that Serbia is still a country that tourists visit in transit, not staying for long here. What they’re looking for is a short, intensive experience, which they mostly get, according to survey results. This primarily pertains to Belgrade, with affordable prices, amiable people and food being the three main impressions, that is, reasons why tourists come to Belgrade. There are also the bad sides. Tourists point out the garbage and the dirt, the grayness of the city, the ruins, the dilapidated buildings, but also the traffic – constant traffic jams, dug out streets and the lack of a subway system – Savic says.

The optimal way of destination management was presented by Dejan Veselinov, a consultant at VTC Serbia. What’s also very important is how to create the content that keeps a destination alive, but also how to attract guests and offer them an experience that they will talk about and that will make them come back. Filip Kustura, the CBDO at Serbia Incoming DCM, also shared his experience at Hotel Summit.

One of the challenges that many countries face is how to create a new destination. Janez Jager, a partner at Best Hospitality Solutions Slovenia, addressed this issue using the example of the revitalization of spa tourism at Terme Sveti Martin in Croatia. After changing the management structure, this health and spa center implemented a new concept with a minimum of CAPEX and a maximum of positioning and differentiation. This opened the way to the Western markets and the income has doubled in only four years.

We asked Jager what Serbia can do to revive its spa tourism and whether the model implemented in Terme Sveti Martin could apply to spas in Serbia.

– Serbia still has a lot of state-owned spas and adequate solutions are now being sought for those spas to be privatized or revitalized. What I can say based on Slovenia’s experience is that the potential of spa tourism is enormous, especially due to the rest of the world, such as China and Russia, for example, which lack the social part of medicine, which the Western Europe is developing very successfully. The model we used at Terme Sveti Martin was developed in several spas in the region, and a similar model was used in two destinations in China and a new resort in the Philippines, near Manila, where we will also incorporate glumping, which is becoming an increasingly popular form of tourism. It’s important to find a good system which will feature a true combination of nature, modern medicine and new business models. This can attract investors and secure a return on their investments – Jager said for our portal.

Our interviewee pointed out that Serbia had an enormous potential for the development of spa tourism.

– The waters in Serbia have very good medical properties and each one can position very well. Serbia’s riches are similar to those that Hungary has, which has now been pronounced the country with the biggest amount of thermal waters – Jager says.

It is important for the offer to be supported with an adequate hotel infrastructure, and the number of hotels in Serbia has been constantly growing in the past few years.

– The hotel infrastructure has developed quite a lot in Serbia in the past few years, especially in Belgrade. It is important for this wave to move to the periphery now and for more attention to be paid to spa complexes and resorts – Janez Jager says for eKapija.

Hyatt Regency Belgrade Hotel a.d. Beograd

Ipsos Strategic Marketing doo Beograd

INB2B Media d.o.o. Beograd

VESELINOV TOURISM CONSULTING

Hotel Summit in Belgrade

Hotel Summit conference

Hyatt Regency Belgrade

IPSOS

CBDO Serbia Incoming DMC

Best Hospitality Solutions Slovenia

VTC Srbija

Vojislava Pešić

Snežana Savić

Filip Kustura

Terme Sveti Martin Croatia

Dejan Veselinov

Janez Jager

development of tourism in Serbia

development of spa tourism in Serbia

Serbia as travel destination

Hotelbeds

Expedia