Skopje is the capital city of the Republic of Macedonia and it is located on the crossroad
between Northern and Southern Europe and Western and Eastern Europe and also the Asian
countries. There are 750.000 inhabitants unofficially, but officially according to the census
of 2002 there are 506.926 inhabitants. There are around 200.000 tourists per year in Skopje,
but according to the national statistical office there are 119.634 tourist arrivals, not counting
the visitors that are staying in private accommodation. Most of the arrivals are business
motivated. Skopje is the most important business center in Macedonia and it is the main
congress tourism center. 37% of the total hotel accommodation capacities in MKD are
located in Skopje. 45% of the total travel agencies are located in Skopje.
Due to the fact that most of the income from the arrivals in Macedonia ends in Skopje, it is
very important to develop a strategy in every domain of the tourism and hospitality.
Therefore the emphasis will be on the following points: (a) elements for a strategy of the
hotels; (b) elements for a strategy of Travel Agencies; (c) goal of the strategy: (d) achieving
extra income of the present visitors; (e) increasing of the number of the tourists; (f)
prolonging the stay of the tourists.
The purpose of this paper is to show how to divert the present visitors of Skopje into real
tourism spenders.