Belgrade, 5 July 2022 (MIA) – Serbia’s Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, Tatjana Matić, after a meeting with Albania’s Minister of Tourism and Environment, Mirella Kumbaro Furxhi, in Belgrade on Tuesday, said their countries and North Macedonia, as part of the Open Balkan initiative, will create a joint digital tourism platform, MIA’s Belgrade correspondent reports. The Tourism Ministers of Serbia and Albania also announced the creation of a joint regional center to resolve the issue of lack of work force, as well as a project related to digitization of tourism. “We’d like Albania and North Macedonia to join us in this project so that we have a joint digital platform within the Open Balkan Initiative,” Matić said. She added that this was a first operative meeting after signing the tourism cooperation memorandum in Ohrid, where they agreed on concrete steps for further cooperation. Matić told a press conference after the meeting that she and her Albanian counterpart also discussed improving the cooperation and a joint appearance in foreign markets, particularly in terms of the tourism offer for China and other Asian countries. Matić said that Air Serbia aims to establish direct flights to China by the end of the year, adding that joint appearance on these markets will substantially increase the number of foreign tourists. Matić and Kumbaro Furxhi agreed that regional integration is the key to success, especially in tourism and trade. Minister Kumbaro Furxhi said tourism is the most important economic sector for her country. “The tourist market remains the main way for this sector to succeed and overcome difficult times,” Kumbaro Furxhi said, noting that 2019 was the best tourism year with around 6.4 million tourists, including ones from the region. She reiterated that 5.6 million tourists came to Albania in 2021, a significant portion of which were from Serbia, adding that the number of Serbian tourists increased by 110% from 2019-2021. “This is the result of better communication within Open Balkan, which creates the necessary spirit of communication,” Furxhi said. During the day, she will participate in the conference titled “New Ideas for New Times”, a step closer to the goals of the Memorandum for Understanding for Tourism Cooperation on the Western Balkans, signed at the Open Balkan Summit in Ohrid. dk/nn/