About 200 travel agencies have been shut down in Serbia

The Association of Tourist Agencies of Serbia (UTAS) warned today that about 200 travel agencies have stopped working due to the crisis caused by the pandemic and that this number will increase because the Ministry of Finance still avoids helping them, even though they are among the activities with the biggest losses.
The association reminded that replacement trips and refunds to passengers depend on the survival of agencies, and that is why it is even more important that travel agencies receive grants in order to preserve their business.
“We do not understand why the state avoids helping those who record losses of more than 90 percent, and on whom the return of money to Serbian citizens who paid for travel before the crisis began,” the UTAS statement reads.
According to the data of the Business Registers Agency, as of March 15, 2020, 94 agencies have been deleted, of which 20 travel organizers, while the work was interrupted by 105 business entities, including 10 travel organizers.
“We expect the problems to increase in February when the payment of deferred taxes and contributions that agencies cannot pay because they have not been working for almost a year arrives. We again urge that this debt be written off, that one-time assistance be granted to other vulnerable categories, and that the approval of loans from the Development Fund, whose sessions are stagnating again, is accelerating,” UTAS pointed out.
The association praised the measures taken by the state to help city hotels and the announced subsidies for carriers because their business is also endangered, but expects their arguments to be taken into account, which are based on balance sheets and facts about losses, Novi Magazin reports.