Balkan workshop sets the course for the future

The tourism organisations and agencies from Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia participants came together from 29th to 31st October 2008 in Budva / Becici, Montenegro, for a brief on the RDA workshop 2008 which they had all attended in Cologne. The aim of this meeting was to evaluate the workshop, to set the course for 2009 and to further develop their joint website.

The three day workshop was led by the German Society for Technical Cooperation (gtz), HESSELMANN & ASSOCIATES (H&A) und Fleischhauer Marketing und Kommunikation (fmk).
The main focus was on intensifying cooperation between the agencies and tourism organisations. Thus the foundation was laid for cross-national, theme-orientated travel packages which will be on offer in 2009 in cooperation with the various travel agencies.

„Former Yugoslavia had an excellent reputation as a holiday destination in the 1980s with a wide array of offers and great value for money,“ stated Gerd Hesselmann, chairman of HESSELMANN & ASSOCIATES. „As part of our gtz project, we want to show the tourism industry and consumers that these Balkan countries can still offer travellers breathtaking scenery and historical legacies from the ancient past – ranging from the Venetian and Ottoman eras to the days of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. They have lost none of their appeal. However, the travel and airline sectors and holidaymakers must be made aware of the fact that these countries have been living peacefully together for over a decade“.