Tourism in Macedonia is on the rise as an increase of 6.5% in the number of tourists was registered in the first five months of 2015 with a 11.6% rise in the number of foreign tourists and a drop of 2.9% in the number of domestic tourists.

This was stated Thursday by Minister of Economy Bekim Neziri at a meeting with representatives of tourist associations in Macedonia in which results released by the State Statistical Office were analyzed.

Commenting the decrease in the number of domestic tourists, Neziri said it was caused by the political crisis that hit Macedonia in May and June.

“Macedonia was hit by a political crisis and such crises can affect tourism anywhere in the world. Owing to the Agency for the Promotion of Tourism, which analyzed the decrease, we have managed to maintain the drop at 3%. When European countries are struck by such crises, then the number of domestic tourists drops more than 10%,” stressed Neziri.

In the meeting, the Economy Ministry and the Agency for Tourism put forward a proposal on setting up a working group to review legal possibilities allowing tourism in Macedonia to be further improved.

“The ultimate goal of the country’s tourism development strategy is tourism to participate with 5% in Macedonia’s GDP by 2020,” the Macedonian Minister said.

An increase in the nights spent, average stay in the country and influx of foreign currencies has been reported in the past several years, according to the director of the Agency for Tourism. “Activities are under way to attract tourists from markets where Macedonia would be offered as a destination. Also, we expect several tour operators to include Macedonia in their offer soon,” said Kristijan Dzambazovski.