Serbia Tourism: 2.1 Million Visitors, Prices Trail Croatia

Serbia logged 2.1 million tourist arrivals and nearly six million overnight stays in the first half of 2026, according to data from the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (RZS). Arrivals rose 6.6 percent and overnight stays 5 percent compared with the same period of 2025.

The growth is not evenly split. Domestic tourists numbered just over a million, with arrivals up 8.1 percent, though their overnight stays grew more slowly, by 4.6 percent. Foreign visitors posted a 5.3 percent rise in arrivals and a 5.4 percent rise in overnight stays, a pattern where length of stay tracks the number of people almost exactly. This is the first six month period in years in which the state had not yet handed out domestic holiday vouchers by August, so the domestic numbers cannot be credited to that incentive.

Where the fivefold growth comes from

The five year picture is sharper than the six month one. The number of foreign tourists climbed from about 500,000 in 2020 to 2.3 million in 2025, a fivefold increase. Their overnight stays jumped from 1.2 million to more than six million, while domestic visitors closed last year with 6.2 million overnight stays. Foreigners have outnumbered domestic tourists since 2023, a shift in the market’s structure rather than a seasonal blip.

The overall total, though, has barely moved. Serbia logged 12.3 million overnight stays in 2025, versus 12.2 million in 2022 and just over six million in 2020. Over three years the curve is essentially flat, which means the boom in foreign visitors has largely replaced the domestic guest rather than adding to the total. That reframes the question: not how many people are arriving, but how much each one spends.

The financial side tells a comparable story. According to the National Bank of Serbia (NBS), foreign visitors spent more than a billion euros between January and May 2026 on accommodation, food, local transport and related services. Almost 900 million euros, nearly nine out of every ten euros, came from European tourists, with half of that, about 450 million euros, from European Union countries. Annual inflows are estimated at around 2.5 billion euros.

Why is Serbia pricier than its neighbors?

Because the price is rising faster than what it buys. Serbia already ranks just behind Croatia on the region’s tourism map, and not only for accommodation but for hospitality generally, while Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary offer cheaper services.

Ljubisa Nesovanovic, owner and director of the Robinson travel agency, draws a line between Belgrade and the rest of the country:

“In the region, including Romania, Bulgaria and even Hungary, tourism and hospitality services are cheaper. Belgrade leads in that respect. The interior of Serbia has lower prices, but that hasn’t yet been properly reflected in tourist traffic,” he says.

Accommodation is not the only thing keeping prices up. The average stay in Belgrade barely exceeds two nights, and that average, Nesovanovic notes, is pulled up by foreigners who have settled in the city and business travelers who stay for months, both counted in the same statistics. A short stay paired with a high price caps revenue per arrival, in the very year arrivals are climbing.

Tour guide Nenad Blagojevic, creator of the Prica sa dusom platform, measures the same trend in a single meal:

“If I tell you that an average lunch in Skadarlija in Belgrade currently costs around 25 to 30 euros per person, and I’m talking about cevapi, shopska salad, lepinja bread and a glass of wine, you understand these are genuinely European prices, and that tourists need extra reasons to come here. Foreigners used to come because of low prices, since a hundred euros could cover food and drink for an entire weekend, and now that same amount barely covers one lunch for two and one modest night out,” Blagojevic says.

Some of those visitors head to Albania instead, which still has lower food and accommodation prices, plus a coastline.

Breakdowns the statistics don’t show

The price comes paired with logistics, and those are cheaper to fix than any hotel:

• tourist information centers typically don’t operate on weekends, when most people are traveling
• the online train ticket system only works in Cyrillic, so a foreigner without that keyboard essentially cannot buy a ticket
• Belgrade lacks parking for tour buses, so vehicles end up with fines

“Did you know that foreigners can’t buy online tickets for our trains, because that adventure requires a keyboard with Cyrillic letters,” Blagojevic says.

These details don’t dent arrival numbers, but they shorten stays and reduce spending, the two factors currently deciding revenue. The next snapshot arrives with July and August data from the Statistical Office and the National Bank’s balance of payments, once the statistics catch the peak of the season, the only stretch of the year when a short stay can be offset by sheer volume.