Survey Results: EXIT Earns Nearly EUR 250 Million for Serbia’s Economy

With its 2023 edition, EXIT earned an additional EUR 21.2 million for the economy of Novi Sad and Serbia, so the total economic contribution of the festival, since its founding, has continued to grow and reached nearly EUR 250 million. This has been shown by the survey of TIM Centar from Novi Sad, which is carried out every year during the festival, on EXIT visitors from Serbia, the region and abroad, focusing on the structure of the audience, economic indicators and contribution to tourism.

Equally as important as the contributions to the local economy of Serbia, measuring in millions, is the international promotion of Novi Sad and Serbia, which is done before, during and after the EXIT festival. The value of this promotion cannot be measured in money. Each year, for over two decades, the visitors, the performers and the most prestigious global media take their incredible impressions from the Petrovaradin Fortress with them to all over the world. These impressions pertain to the extraordinary hospitality and cooperation, the unique festival location, the high level of the organization of the festival and the music program, but also the tourism offer and the highlights of Novi Sad and Serbia.

This July, EXIT was visited by over 200,000 people from 120 countries of the world, and according to the TIM Centar survey, 36.7% of them visited Novi Sad for the first time. The percentage of visitors who are not from Serbia amounts to as much as 65%. As many as 83.5% of the subjects visited the city precisely because of the festival, which is a clear indicator that EXIT puts both Novi Sad and Serbia in a great place on the global tourism map.

The majority of foreign guests came from Austria, Germany, Russia, Great Britain, Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine and France, whereas, of the countries of the region, most guests came from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia. This year, 46.6% entirely new visitors visited the Petrovaradin Fortress, and it is especially encouraging that, this year, there were nearly twice as many citizens of Novi Sad at the festival as last year.

During the festival, the visitors spent EUR 567 on average in Novi Sad and Serbia, which is an increase of EUR 18 compared to the previous edition. The tourists from Western Europe spent EUR 873 on average – EUR 52 more than last year, whereas the average spending of the visitors from the Eastern Europe at the festival amounted to EUR 624. The visitors from outside of Europe spent the most in total – EUR 893.

The average age of the visitors who took part in the survey is 25.5 years, nearly identical to last year’s average (25.7). Highly educated visitors, students included, comprised 77% of the audience – the same as at the previous edition. There were 56% employees and 35% students.

At this year’s edition, great emphasis was placed on mental health once again, both through messages of support and strengthening that could be seen everywhere on the Petrovaradin Fortress, and through the work of Centar SRCE and the initial activities within the “Life is Live!” campaign. In that sense, this year, in conversations with the visitors, questions were highlighted which pertain to mental health and digital dependency. It is very significant that 81% of the subjects feel that EXIT has a positive impact on their mental health. The survey has shown that the subjects use their phones for 4.6 hours a day on average, which is another reason to raise awareness of the scope of digital dependency, which EXIT will continue working on actively.

The survey was done on a representative sample of 1,393 visitors of the EXIT festival, throughout its duration. Only the visitors who bought the ticket were surveyed and those who worked as part of the festival were excluded from the survey.

EXIT Festival Novi Sad

Tim centar doo Novi Sad

EXIT Festival Novi Sad

TIM Centar Novi Sad

Petrovaradin Fortress

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