“#EUzaTebe – For Cultural Heritage and Tourism” project has awarded one million euros for 120 projects aimed at supporting the tourism sector affected by the consequences of COVID.
Beneficiaries of the grants are small and micro enterprises, family businesses, agricultural farms and companies from 12 towns and municipalities in the East and Southeast of Serbia.
“European Union continues to support Serbia in facing the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. With 93 mil EUR grant in total, the EU is the leading partner and donor to Serbia to mitigate the pandemic consequences. Earlier this Spring, the EU delivered immediate help, in the form of medical and protection equipment, such as respirators, masks, oxygen and triage containers, as well as food and hygiene packages for marginalised groups, all worth 15mil EUR grant in total. Now, we have moved towards short- and medium-term help for economic recovery, for which we allocated 78mil EUR grants. Through this EU project, the funds will reach the most vulnerable entrepreneurs operating tourism to improve their offer. This will be particularly important for the period ahead of us”, said Ambassador Sem Fabrizi, Head of the EU Delegation to the Republic of Serbia.
Most of the beneficiaries, which will receive up to 10,000 euros grant per project, are providing private accommodation for tourists (52 entrepreneurs), but the support goes also for camps, restaurants and catering services, boarding houses, hotels and hostels, travel agencies, wineries and beekeepers.
“The key goal of our project is to help the most vulnerable actors in the field of tourism to overcome the consequences of the pandemic and improve their offer, to become more attractive to visitors. Eastern Serbia is an undiscovered gem of Serbia and its tourist offer must be raised to a higher level, to attract as many visitors as possible. In the coming years, our project will continue to help and improve the tourist potential of eastern Serbia and the Lower Danube through several segments,“ said Alexander Beetz, Team Leader of the project.
“#EUzaTebe – for Cultural Heritage and Tourism” is a project aimed at developing tourism as a significant economic potential for stimulating the economic development of Eastern Serbia and the Lower Danube. The project is funded by the European Union with 15 million EUR grant, with a contribution by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development) worth of 1.6 million EUR.
The project is implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
The right to participate in the competition have individuals who provide accommodation services, farms and entrepreneurs/micro and small enterprises whose activities in the field of tourism are carried out in Boljevac, Bor, Golubac, Kladovo, Knjazevac, Majdanpek, Negotino, Pozarevac, Smederevo, Sokobanja, Veliko Gradište and Zaječar.
A total of 464 project applications arrived through the competition.
Please see the list of project winners at the link.
The awarding of contracts begins on 28 August 2020, and the contracts will be successively sent to the winners for signature as they are prepared.