Nemanja Milenković, CEO of the ‘Novi Sad 2021’ Foundation participated on the panel ‘Promotion and Branding of Tourist Products’ on the second day of the Regional Conference organised by the EIAT platform and Centre for Tourism Research and Studies.

Mr Milenković discussed connection between the cultural sector and tourism, stressing the great importance of culture in location branding, and that Novi Sad has positioned itself highly in the region in this way. ‘Our events have more and more visitors as the years go by, the number of overnight stays is higher, and recent studies show that main associations related to Novi Sad, as a tourist destination, are products and stakeholders of cultural-creative industries. In addition to this, cultural and historical heritage and our customs contribute to the promotion of destination and individual projects in tourism and culture’, said Mr Milenković.

During the conference, one could hear numerous examples of good practice about using cultural potentials for tourism, as well as about the improvement of business models in order to increase competition of a destination. Participants and guests discussed about audience development and help that social networks can provide to brands for growth of and interaction with the target audience.

With the European Capital of Culture project, Novi Sad and Serbia can be positioned on the cultural map of Europe and the world, which would benefit not only the cultural sector, but it would also encourage the development and utilisation of tourist potentials and thus the economic development of the country.