Departure of Falkensteiner seen as big blow to Serbian tourism - Austrians blame Stara Planina public company for contract termination

Austria's hotel group Falkensteiner has terminated the contract on the management of Stara Planina Hotel at the namesake mountain, and the consequences of this decision are extremely negative for the Serbian tourism, Trade, Tourism and Services Assistant Minister Renata Pindzo assessed today.

Pindzo told eKapija that Falkensteiner had been the only international hotel chain outside Belgrade and that it had been successfully manageing the hotel Stara Planina over the past three years, which was best seen from an increase in the number of tourists at that mountain.

As announced, Mount Stara Planina was visited by nearly 16,000 tourists in the first nine months of 2015, up 51% from the same period in 2014. The number of foreign tourists grew even more in the given period - by 80%.

In a statement to its guests and business partners, Falkensteiner noted that the main culprit for the contract termination was the Stara planina public company. Austrians also stressed in the statement that effective management of the facility was made impossible by the change of CEO, that is, legal representative Aleksandar Vasiljevic, who had been running Stara Planina Hotel by 17 November 2015 at the proposal of the operator - Falkensteiner.

- Over the past few months, Falkensteiner has tried everything to establish business communication and cooperation with the Stara Planina public company and to join forces with the founders of that public company to keep the hotel management contract in force, primarily to protect the interest of guests and you as its business partners and associated, but that was futile - the statement reads.

As people at Stara Planina Hotel explain to eKapija, the hotel will stay open and the staff structure has remained unchanged so far. They also say the hotel is now receiving new bookings without canceling the old ones.

According to Beta news agency, the public company Stara Planina announced today that the State Attorney of Serbia would be representing that company in the process of termination of the Stara Planina Hotel management contract signed with the Falkensteiner company.

K.M.

Sp resort doo

Falkensteiner Hotel Belgrade

JP Stara planina Knjaževac

Ministarstvo turizma i omladine Republike Srbije

Ministarstvo privrede Republike Srbije

Hotel Stara planina

Falkensteiner Hotel

Falkensteiner Stara planina

public company Stara planina

Renata Pindzo

hotels at Stara planina

accommodation Stara Planina