The Association of Tourist Agencies of Serbia (UTAS) and the Association of Independent Travel Agencies of Serbia (ANTAS) said that tomorrow, November 1, about 4,000 tourism workers will lose their jobs although the associations warned about all the problems arising from blockades of travel agencies which have been in place for longer than a month timely.

They again appealed to the relevant ministry to urgently solve the problem of the blockade, assessing that the chances of agencies going bankrupt en masse are increasing and that it is „leaving passengers without alternative travel options“.

UTAS and ANTAS argued that the relevant ministry has passed guidelines that are „completely inapplicable in practice“, such as presenting bank guarantees as a condition for the continuation of legal business.

UTAS and ANTAS also called on insurance companies to announce whether they would pay damages to passengers who are not provided with replacement trips, „because most agencies cannot continue to operate in the current conditions.“