Serbia�a Image in the World

EXIT festival gathers young people from all over the world

The image of Serbia in the European countries and the US is chiefly related to war, poverty and instability, and there is a stereotyping of Serbs as aggressive and war-mongering nation, show the results of a poll conducted by �Exit Team� and �TraNSfer� Club od Psychology Students during the EXIT 05 Music Festival.

The poll was conducted on a sample of 900 Serbian and foreign citizens that visited �EXIT�. Among the foreign nationals, the majority came from the former Yugoslavia republics.

The image of Serbia in Croatia is very negative and is related to the consequences of war and the �Chetnik� movement, which is an opinion of 70% of the polled Croatians. The opinions of the B&H citizens are divided, with 25% holding Serbia in positive regard. In Macedonia and Slovenia, the perception of Serbia is very positive, and the polled Macedonians and Slovenians believe that the Serbs, in general, are very friendly people.

Positive view of Serbia is held by the other Eastern countries (Greece, Bulgaria and Romania) and their citizens cite the similar behaviour and worldview as the most positive feature.

The �Exit� release for the media says that the visitors from Western Europe and the US often think that the war has never stopped in the region, although there are those who think that Serbia�s image in the world follows a positive trend and is improving.

Almost one half of �EXIT� visitors are from the city of Novi Sad, and one in ten is a foreign national. One half of the foreigners are citizens of the states of former Yugoslavia. Over 80 percent of the visitors are young people between 20 and 30 years of age; 13 percent are younger than 20, shows the poll.