On Thursday, November 23, 2023, an event was held at Zlatar on the occasion of the official start of the “Joint Actions for the Development of Rural Tourism” project.
In the opening remarks, the president of the municipality of Nova Varoš, Radosav Vasiljević, as well as the director of the Tourism Organization of Western Serbia Region, Miroslav Rađen, greeted the attendees, after which Snežana Zečević, project manager, gave her presentation, as well as Marijana Đokić, assistant to the mayor of the municipality for the economy and local economic development; Slavica Adžić, director of “IN Hotel Zlatar” and Momčilo Antonijević, journalist and folk herbalist.
The event was realized in a way to introduce the general public to the planned goals, results and activities of the project, to point out the importance of rural tourism for the economic development of underdeveloped municipalities and especially to highlight the function of natural resources in the future development of the tourist offer of the cross-border area.
The event was attended by: representatives of municipal tourism organizations of the region, service providers in rural tourism Zlatara, producers of healthy food, tourist rural households and agricultural cooperatives, partners from the north of Montenegro, the media. It was a good opportunity for the affirmation of rural tourism, mutual exchange of information and examples of good practice, but also for pointing out some of the obstacles that need to be removed if a larger share of this type of tourism in the total tourist traffic is desired.
At the end of the official speeches, the informal gathering continued with a mini-display of home-made handicrafts by rural women and herbalists of Zlatar region.
The implementation of the project is co-financed by the European Union through the Serbia-Montenegro Cross-Border Cooperation Program 2014 – 2020, within the framework of the pre-accession aid instrument (IPA II), whereby the contracting authority is the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Serbia, the Sector for Contracting and Funding of Programs from European Union Funds (CFCU ). The project is implemented in partnership by the Regional Development Agency for Bjelasica, Komove and Prokletije, the municipality of Šavnik and the Tourist Organization Zlatar, in the amount of 264,724 euros, of which the European Union provides 225,016 euros (85%).
