This interview was originally conducted as part of 4 Steps for Breaking Into Multi-Day Tours, published on Arival.
Last month, I spoke with a group of tour operators for an article I wrote for Arival on how day tour operators are making the transition into multi-day experiences — including Florida Avdullaj of Fun in Tuscany, who I spoke with about designing private multi-day itineraries in Tuscany. One of those conversations was with Miljan Miljević, founder of Serbian Private Tours — a Belgrade-based operator running exclusive private tours across Serbia and the wider Balkans. What started thirteen years ago as a small collection of city tours and day trips has grown into a full operation spanning single-day experiences, multi-day Serbia itineraries, and multi-country journeys across the region.
Miljan’s story is one of the more unlikely ones I’ve come across. He came from an IT background with no prior experience in travel. But travelling around Serbia for work, he noticed something: the country had a lot to offer international visitors — history, culture, remarkable landscapes — yet at the time it was genuinely difficult to explore independently. That’s how the idea for Serbia Private Tours was born.
What struck me most is how deliberately Miljan has built his online presence and sales process around the way multi-day travellers research and buy. Because he understands how his customers make decisions, he knows exactly where to focus his energy — every detail of his website, his reviews, and his communication is designed to signal reliability before a word is exchanged. The result: by the time someone reaches out, they’re already close to decided. Most bookings close in just five or six emails.
Serbian Private Tours is now entering its thirteenth year. How did it all begin?
I came from IT — that’s my background. I had no previous experience in the travel industry. But I was travelling around Europe, mostly on business trips, and I kept noticing that Serbia had a lot to offer foreign travellers — history, culture, food, remarkable landscapes — but the country was unknown, and if you did come, it was genuinely difficult to explore independently. The tourism infrastructure for individual travellers was rough.
That’s where the idea came from. The private tour concept was completely my own — I hadn’t seen it done elsewhere, hadn’t experienced it myself anywhere. So I built the first website with one clear goal: to create a reliable, transparent online presence. I wanted the information to be accurate and trustworthy, and I wanted to make online booking possible. All the tours I had at that point were short — city tours and day trips around Belgrade and the surrounding region.
How did multi-day tours come into the picture?
It happened in stages. Partly it was a legal requirement — in Serbia, to operate multi-day tours (what the law calls “complex tourism services” with overnight stays) you need a proper tour operator’s licence. I didn’t have that at the start. When I acquired the licence in 2015, it opened the door officially.
But the demand had already been building organically before that. People would reach out and say: “I’m planning to spend six days in Serbia — can you put something together for me, including accommodation and guiding?” That’s practically how the multi-day product started. I wasn’t building it speculatively; I was responding to what guests were already asking for. After a season or two of that, I had enough experience and product to formalise it properly. Since then the range has grown — from multi-day Serbia itineraries like Serbia in 10 Days, to longer multi-country journeys across the Balkans spanning twelve or thirteen days.
People would reach out and say they were spending a week in Serbia and needed someone to put it all together. That's practically how it started.
How did you build out the itineraries in those early days?
I always tried to build on two levels. The first is the highlights — the places a traveller has heard of and expects to see. You need those, because that’s what makes a trip bookable. They are the hook. But the second level is what I find more interesting: adding something that isn’t on anyone’s radar yet — somewhere I knew was extraordinary but hadn’t received the attention it deserved. Often that’s what guests remember most when they get home.
So the formula was: cover the well-known attractions that travellers are expecting, then bring them somewhere that genuinely surprises them. Show them the country, not just the postcard version of it.
How does the multi-day booking process differ from single-day?
With single-day tours the booking can happen quickly — sometimes just days before. Multi-day is a completely different rhythm. The process typically takes at least three months. Customers do serious, methodical research: they look at multiple operators, read every review they can find, go through your website, your social media, your About Us page. One guest from the UK once called the local tourism board to ask for a reference before booking. That level of diligence is not unusual. They are putting significant time and money into your hands, and they want to be sure before they commit.
After all that research they narrow their shortlist down to two or three operators and start making contact. That’s the moment that matters most. Because by then, the decision is largely already made — what they’re doing is confirming their impression of you through the interaction. The operator who gives the most reliable impression in those exchanges is usually the one who gets the booking. Customers will even choose the more expensive operator if that impression is stronger.
“When picking between operators, they turn to the one that gives the most reliable impression — the communication, the website, everything behind it. They will choose the more expensive one if that impression is stronger.”
So how many touchpoints does it actually take to close a booking?
Fewer than most people expect. If a customer has done their research properly and reaches out with a well-formed enquiry, I can usually close it in five or six emails. They send an inquiry. I respond with a precise offer — itinerary, pricing, everything. By the third email, many are ready to proceed. By the fifth or sixth, they’re paying the deposit.
I very rarely need to get on the phone or do a video call. I offer it, but most customers don’t even ask. I think that reflects how much work the website and reputation do before a customer ever reaches out. By the time they contact me, the trust is largely already there.
Almost every tour gets customised to some degree — only a small percentage book exactly as listed. But the adjustments are usually minor. The big decisions — destination, duration, who to book with — are all already made.
You talk about guides becoming a “local friend” rather than a traditional guide. What do you mean by that?
That has always been my idea — when I put a guide and guests together, I don’t want the guide to just be someone who recites facts and leads the group from place to place. I want them to be more like a local friend: someone who is genuinely present with the guests, who connects with them personally, who shares the country through their own eyes. That kind of relationship can only develop properly over multiple days. On a day trip you can get a glimpse of it, but it’s not the same thing. Multi-day tours are where that real connection happens — and it creates genuine value for both sides.
My idea was always that when I put a guide and guests together, it's not that he's just a traditional guide — it's more like a local friend. And this can only happen properly on a multi-day tour.
What advice would you give to a single-day operator thinking about moving into multi-day?
The first thing is: understand your destination before you decide. For some operators, day trip demand is strong enough that multi-day is optional — a good addition, but not a necessity, and it comes with significantly more operational complexity. If you can build a solid business on day trips alone, that’s a perfectly valid path.
For me, that choice didn’t really exist. In Serbia, the demand for day trips alone isn’t big enough to sustain the business, and the demand for private multi-day isn’t quite big enough on its own either. So I need both. But if you’re in a destination where you can choose, think carefully about what kind of business you want to run. Day trips are less complex and more transactional. Multi-day means higher margin, richer experiences, more planning — but also better visibility ahead. By February, I can have ten multi-day tours already booked for the whole season. With day trips, you can’t plan anything that far out. That forward visibility alone is worth a lot.
To explore the private day tours and multi-day experiences Miljan and the Serbian Private Tours team offer visit serbianprivatetours.com.
If you enjoyed this conversation, you might also like:
13 Hard Won Lessons from the Field — Six months of conversations with experienced operators distilled into practical lessons on designing and running unforgettable tours.
The 5 Habits of Effective Multi-Day Tour Operators — How the best operators avoid fighting fires and build businesses that run smoothly at scale.
Multi-Day Tour Pages That Convert — What it takes to turn your online presence into a booking engine for high-value multi-day travellers.
