Safety conference

Safety conference

Safety is a job of all of us – was the message from the conference on safety in hotel and restaurant properties, which was held under the name "High safety standards – quality trademark" on April 2013, at the Hotel JAT Slavija in Belgrade. Conference that gathered more than hundred participants, was organized by the magazine specialized for modern tourism and hospitality "Turistički Svet" and the Agency specialized for safety management "Alansa inženjering", with the professional support of Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia and its body Sector for Emergency Situations, as well as Agency for Safety and Health at Work – within the Ministry of Work and Social Policies and Ministry of Finance and Industry.

Conference was officially opened with the speech of state secretary in Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia Miodrag Miljković, in which he highlighted the importance of safety for tourism development in Serbia, which should become our corporative advantage. Emeritus professor Dr Slobodan Unković from the University Singidunum, in his introductory speech said that in the world there are more than 11 billion travelers, so there is also a growing need for more safety concerns.

Eminent lecturers were: Predrag Marić, manager of the Sector for Emergency Situations, Branko Miladinović, a father of tragically deceased journalist on Delta TV, Stojan Arizanović, Assistant Minister from the Sector for Tourism Inspection within the Ministry of Finance and Industry, Vera Božić-Trefalt, manager of the Agency for Safety and Health at Work within the Ministry of Work and Social Policies, professor Dr Milovan Vidaković, president of the DITUR, doc. Dr Goran Mandić from the Belgrade’s Faculty for Safety, manager of the Hotel Grand  on Kopaonik Goran Stefanović, Saše Kuzmanović, manager of the "Alansa inženjeringa"; Dr Radenko Rajić – professor on the College for Engineering Tehnikum Taurunum in Zemun, Vesna Vlatković, marketing & PR manager of A Hotels, Rade Samčević, owner of the consulting agency HT and Dušan Radovanović, owner of the VIP Security agency, as well as other professionals, like Mirko Gavrilović, manager for certifications in the SGS Beograd company.

At the conference there were initiated some suggestions that should bring serious changes in the field of safety and security, primarily, in hotel properties.  

- The message of this conference was that we should never again let happen what happened in the hotel "Putnik", restaurant "Laundž", club "Kontrast", hotel "Grand", restaurant "Central park", and many other properties across the country. Idea was to highlight the importance of safety for the tourism industry and a need to work on it preventively. This is a vast topic which was just started at the Conference. With the help of responsible ministries, eminent professionals and companies that deal with the safety issues we will dedicate entire year to this subject. We hope that editorial board of the magazine Turistički Svet, as a socially responsible, will in that way give media contribution to this important topic for tourism, because our belief is that journalists should not just report about events, but they should also raise people's awareness in order to ensure fatal accidents never happen again! – said at the Conference closure Ljiljana Rebronja, editor in chief of the magazine "Turistički Svet".