Lisbon – The example of Montenegro should be followed – said the president of the World counsel for tourism and traveling Jean Claude Baumgarten, pointing out the fact that Montenegro today is among first countries in the world by the rate of tourist growth.
Baumgarten praised Montenegro and specially greeted its Minister of tourism Predrag Nenezic during the formal opening of the 7th summit of the World counsel for tourism and traveling which is being held in Lisbon.
7th summit has gathered more than 800 participants from 178 countries, and its patron is the president of Portugal Anibal Cavaco Silva. The Prime Minister of Portugal, Hose Sokrates, opened the summit and the organizers have made the ceremony of opening in the monastery complex “Sao Baeto” from XV century.
World counsel for tourism was founded by more than a hundred of famous tourist companies in order to get more objective data about the trends in tourism, and beside the representatives of governments of numerous countries heads of famous world hotel chains and air companies attended the gathering.
Addressing to the participants at the summit Nenezic yesterday said that Montenegro is in front of a special challenge, considering that Montenegro is a country with the greatest rate of tourist growth which, according to estimations of the World counsel, in the next decade will be 10% per year.
– Montenegro by the size of the territory is equal to 1/7 of Greek, or 1/6 of Brazil, but not everything is in size. Good things are found in small package. Our 13.000 square kilometers we are offering as an amazing specter of possibilities for rest – said Nenezic.
He stressed that huge growth of the value of real estates happened in Montenegro, and that certain parts of infrastructure are hardly managing to keep up with the sudden growth of demand.
– Huge pressures for the unadjusted and overwhelming construction as an answer on the market circumstances threaten to wipe out the allure of natural beauty itself which has stirred the demand – noted Nenezic, adding that it is hard to put the wine back in the bottle when it is split once.
He said that the main dilemma in Montenegrin tourism is what the Government’s role ad the role of private sector in administering its growth should be.
Nenezic said that the key roles of Government are construction and marketing f the national brand, transparent and permanent making of plans and regulations, encouraging of investments and investment in the infrastructure and personnel in the way, which in private sector cannot be expected.
According to his words, the basic role of private sector is to provide the funds and to work “in an ethical way and in accordance with the law and regulations”.
Nenezic and his associated, during the summit have spoken with the Ministers of tourism of Greece, India, Jordan, Macedonia, Brazil, Albania, and China, as well as with the representatives of famous tourist companies and media.
Radmilo Tadic
ALL MONTENEGRINS ARE GOING TO CHINA
The president of the World counsel for tourism and traveling Jean Claude Baumgarten yesterday before the beginning of the official part of the summit spoke to the participants saying that ministers of China and Montenegro came to the summit and told them an anecdote about the meeting of the Prime Minister of those countries.
– When Montenegrin Prime Minister was in a visit to his colleague in Beijing, Chinese president of the Government asked him how many citizens does the country from which he comes from has. He was told that there are less than 700.000 people living in Montenegro, and the Prime Minister of China then wondered why haven’t they all come – said Baumgarten, which provoked the laughter at the participants of the summit.
During the afternoon session, which was directly broadcasted by the TV network BBS, about the future of tourism yesterday beside Nenezic, spoke Prime Minister of Namibia Nahas Angula, Greek Minister of tourism Fani Pali-Petralia, and her colleague from Brazil Marta Supliku, as well as the Minister of tourism of Jordan Osama Dabzis, minister of aviation of India Praful Patel, and Portuguese Minister of economics Manuel Pino.
