Tourist turnover, May 2026

In the Republic of Serbia, 470 thous. tourist arrivals were registered in May 2026, which was by 7.4% more than in the same month of the previous year. A total of 1 209 thous. tourist overnight stays were recorded, representing an increase of 5.5% compared with May of the previous year.

Of the total number of overnight stays, domestic tourists accounted for 629 thous. overnight stays, which was by 2.2% more than in the same period of the previous year, while foreign tourists accounted for 581 thous. overnight stays, representing an increase of 9.3%.

In terms of overnight stays, in May 2026, among urban tourist destinations the most visited were Beograd, Novi Sad and Niš, among spa resorts Vrnjačka Banja, Sokobanja and Banja Vrdnik, and among mountain centres Zlatibor, Kopaonik and Tara.

In May 2026, the highest number of overnight stays by foreign tourists was realised by tourists from Turkey, Russian Federation and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Methodological notes

Data on tourist traffic (number of tourist arrivals and overnight stays) and accommodation capacities are published on the basis of statistical processing of data taken from the administrative source, the Central Information System in Catering trade and Tourism (eTourist).

Central Information System in the field of catering trade and tourism (eTourist) is a unique and centralized electronic information system, containing all relevant data on users (check – in and check - out of domestic and foreign tourists) and accommodation providers and accommodation establishment facilities, through which the records are made and entered are other data derived from the performance of catering, nautical and hunting tourism activity, or tourism activities or services in tourism.

A tourist is any person who spends at least one night in a catering or other accommodation establishment for rest or recreation, health, study, sports, religion, business, public missions or gatherings in the place of visit, outside his place of residence.

Tourists are not taken to be persons who have been staying at the place of visit for more than 12 consecutive months, persons whose main reason for the visit is an activity financed from the place of visit, persons who regularly travel daily or weekly to the place where they work or study, persons who enter or leave the country as migrants, border workers, diplomats, consular representatives and members of the military forces on regular duty, refugees, nomads, persons in transit.

A tourist is registered in each accommodation establishment in which he stays, and in such a case he can be re-registered; therefore, the statistics record the number of tourist arrivals, not the number of tourists.

Overnight stay in an accommodation facility means every registered overnight stay of a person, i.e. domestic or foreign tourist.

A person is considered to have spent the night, if registered in the accommodation establishment, regardless of his physical presence.

The data presented in this statistical release are preliminary results and may be subject to some changes.

Starting from 1999 the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia has not at disposal and may not provide available certain data relative to AP Kosovo and Metohia and therefore these data are not included in the coverage for the Republic of Serbia (total).

Methodological explanations for the field of tourism can be found on the website of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, under the section Catering and Tourism.