The final conference of the project IMC Regional Value Cahin was held at Mt. Zlatibor on Tuesday, June 9th, 2015. Within the project, the guarantee trademark Mountain breakfast was registered and numerous activities were implemented with the aim to specialize a gastronomic offer and to complete the branding process of Western Serbia tourism destination. This event gathered over 150 participants from the public, private and civil sectors from the territory of this tourism destination. Most of the participants were hoteliers and producers, and the cooperation between them was established thanks to this project.
The concept of the Mountain breakfast is the result of many year activities of the Zlatibor Regional development agency (ZRDA). The activities have been directed towards the development of the tourism sector and other related sectors through creation of the unique visual identity and image of western Serbia tourism destination. Besides the registration of the guarantee trademark with which the local traditional products and the services of hotels, restaurants and rural households from western Serbia will be marked, a mountain menu has also been created within this project. Guests will have an opportunity to enjoy traditional dishes from this area that are prepared in an innovative way. New packages for 5 groups of products have been designed and printed. The producers will be able to sell their products for the first time under a common visual identity at „Zlatarica“ – the first specialized shop of local products. Showcases for souvenir packages of the products are being prepared and they will soon be exhibited in the best known hotels and restaurants in this region.
Gordana Plamenac, the director of the National Tourism Organization of Serbia says that the mountain breakfast represents everything that the NTO of Serbia started up a few years ago with the campaign “Soul food Serbia”. „Our goal was that the products presented in that campaign become components of the tourism gastronomy offer . I do hope that western Serbia’s example will be followed by other regions, so as to present the tastes of our country in the right to tourists - said Mrs.Plamenac.
Renata Pindzo, the assistant Minister of Tourism, pointed out that associating of the private and public sectors at a local level is the future orientation of tourism development and that the destination management organizations all over the world are based on a public-private partnership and are in charge of branding and creating a unique gastronomic offer. Accordingly, this initiative in western Serbia is the right way towards achievement of that goal-said Renata Pindzo.
The representatives of USAID project of sustainable local development expressed their satisfaction with the achieved results. The concept of the Mountain breakfast, which was created with their financial support, will have a positive impact on the local economic development and matchmaking of small local producers with the tourism industry.
