Serbia Opens 30,000 Tourism Vouchers for Pensioners
Applications start Monday at 8 a.m. at Post of Serbia counters. Only pensioners with a monthly pension below 80,000 dinars qualify, and the queue is ranked by filing time.
Serbia is handing out 30,000 tourism vouchers worth 10,000 dinars each (around 85 euros), with applications opening on Monday, August 3, at 8 a.m. at Post of Serbia counters across the country. The scheme is capped at 300 million dinars (around 2.56 million euros), and only pensioners whose monthly pension stays below 80,000 dinars can apply.
The start date was announced on August 1 by Sinisa Mali, First Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister. The government adopted the regulation on how the vouchers are awarded and used in late July and published it in the Official Gazette. The Ministry of Tourism and Youth says the procedure itself is unchanged from previous years apart from who qualifies: State Secretary Uros Kandic said applications will be taken from August 3 at 8 a.m. at post office counters.
Mali described the requirements in these terms:
Potrebno je ime, prezime, JMBG i vaucer ugostitelja ili hotela u kojem se osoba smesta. (What is needed is a first name, surname, personal ID number and the voucher of the caterer or hotel where the person is staying.)
He added:
Jos jedno obecanje koje ispunjavamo i to je, po meni, veoma vazno jer ne samo da ulazete u domaci turizam, nego to znacajno doprinosi i daljem rastu BDP-a. (Another promise we are keeping, and to me that matters a great deal, because you are not only investing in domestic tourism, you are also contributing significantly to further GDP growth.)
What you bring to the counter
The application is not the first step. The pensioner books a room with a hotel or guesthouse from the list of registered providers, collects a booking confirmation, and only then goes to the post office. Three items are filed together:
- a valid ID card or passport
- proof of the accommodation booking
- proof of pension income, either a pension slip or the pension decision
The pension amount decides everything. Age and place of residence do not enter into it, and a pensioner drawing more than 80,000 dinars a month is out regardless of how long they have been retired.
Why does the hour matter?
Applicants are ranked by the date and time their form is accepted at the counter, and the quota stops at 30,000 vouchers. Once that number is filled, later applications get nothing even if every condition is met. That is why the announcement names an hour: 8 a.m. on Monday is a starting line, not a formality.
Five nights, and a November 1 deadline
The voucher covers accommodation of at least five nights, outside the holder’s place of residence. The property must be registered for the scheme and listed in the e-Turista system, through which operators later file for reimbursement. Vouchers are delivered to the holder’s home address and must be used by November 1, 2026.
No cash changes hands. The voucher cannot be paid out or transferred to a bank account, and it covers accommodation only, so travel, meals and the local tourist tax stay with the holder.
Year eleven of the scheme
Serbia has run tourism vouchers since 2015, and pensioners have made up roughly 70 percent of all recipients. This round goes a step further and leaves them alone in the programme, with the 80,000-dinar ceiling as the single filter. For the budget it is a 300 million dinar outlay that flows back, through operator reimbursements, into domestic accommodation late in the season, in the weeks when coastal and spa capacity normally starts to empty.
