Regional Tourism Conference took place in Zlatibor from December 7 to 9, 2023 and brought together more than 70 eminent experts from the tourism sector, including representatives of relevant institutions, organizations and service providers from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The conference was organized within the "Open-Air Everywhere" Project with the main aim of presenting different perspectives for development of tourism of special interest, such as the outdoor tourism. Destination branding was one of the central topics of the conference and it gathered key representatives of tourism organizations/boards, business sector and the academic community who had the opportunity to learn more about the differences between a brand, as something that does not have to be ultimately positive, and branding as an active brand management process as well as about their role in creation of the brand.
The conferences was also an opportunity for promotion of some of the expected results of the Project, and for one of the most important outcomes of the conference, a document with recommendations regulating the incentives and procedures in special interest tourism will be created for different levels of government in both partner countries.
The Project was jointly implemented by the Development Association NERDA, the City of Tuzla, the Tourist Board of the City of Tuzla and the Tourism Organization of the Western Serbia Region and financed within the third call of the Cross-Border Cooperation Program Serbia - Bosnia and Herzegovina 2014 - 2020 (IPA II) co-financed by the European Union. Total value of the Project is EUR 394,082.03 with co-financing from the European Union of 84.87% (EUR 334,457.42) and 15.13% (EUR 59,624.61) of the contribution of the project partners. The contract on co-financing by the European Union was signed with the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Serbia - Department for Contracting and Financing the EU funded programs.