Macedonia Visa Lifting Fails To Boost Travel

The number of people who left the country after the visa regime was abolished on 19 December until 12January has risen insignificantly compared to the same period in 2008/09, MIA news agency reports.

According to the Ministry over 208,000 exits from Macedonia were recorded during this period while some 170,000 passengers entered. A year earlier in the same period some 193,000 passengers left the country and 171,000 paid a visit.

The visa liberalisation also failed to boost the work of travel agencies. The chairman of the Association of the Travel Agencies of Macedonia, ATAM, Mile Spirovski said the expectations for an increase of tourist travels abroad weren't met.

“On the contrary, interest for traveling has decreased and it is at the lowest possible level at the moment. The main reason for it is the economic crisis,” he stated.

Two weeks after the visa liberation entered into force, interest for traveling to EU countries increased by some 30 percent, but the fuss gradually subsided.

Figures show that the visa liberalisation is being implemented without major obstacles, because out of over 200,000 passengers, only an insignificant number of Macedonians were denied entrance in the Shengen zone.

Representatives of the EU delegation to Macedonia told MIA that the visa liberalisation was being implemented successfully, without serious problems.

The fall of the visa regime for Macedonia, as well as for Serbia and for Montenegro, enabled free travel of people to the European Schengen area. Macedonians can now travel to 25 EU states, with the exception of Great Britain and Ireland, and to another three European countries, Norway, Switzerland and Iceland without a visa.