New Set of State Measures for Aiding Tourism and Other Jeopardized Sectors by the End of Next Week?

The measures of help to the economy launched by the state will not be sufficient for the sectors especially affected by the crisis, primarily when it comes to tourism. The crisis group in charge of financial supports claims that additional measures for the tourist sector will be announced by the end of next week, Aleksandar Senicic, the director of the National Association of Tourism Organizations of Serbia (YUTA), says for eKapija.

– It's being discussed and we have sent our propositions. We expect financial help in the sense of payment of minimum wages over a longer time period, the extension of the moratorium, as well as more favorable terms of credits for working assets and investments, in the sense of longer grace periods and loan repayment periods – Senicic says.

He adds that, without additional measures, the tourist sector is not likely to survive, considering that the current season has been brought into question and that it is not yet known whether it can be realized and to what extent.

According to the currently available data, he says, not a lot of people in the tourist sector lost their jobs.

– Of around 5,500 to 6,500, several hundred lost their jobs. With additional measures, we can persevere through these three months and meet the next year readier, being able to continue where we stopped. Still, it is likely that we will need more than a year or two to at least go back to where we were before all this happened – he says.

He says, however, that it will only be clear in June whether the additional measures are realized and whether they can expect to work this summer at all.

– If there's now work this summer, even with all the government's measures, I believe that another 10-15% people will not be able to keep their jobs, and without the measures, the percentage would be far higher – Senicic says.

I. Milovanovic

PU YUTA Beograd

National Association of Tourism Organizations of Serbia YUTA

Aleksandar Seničić

coronavirus

aid to economy

measures of help to economy

tourism sector

helping tourism sector