Budva – Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic evaluated yesterday, at the meeting with the representatives of the tourist economy of Budva Riviera, that this year’s tourist season is more successful than many others in terms of lasting, number of tourists and number of overnight staying. This year also showed lacking and problems which should be removed so that the next season can be more successful.
The key task of the Government in the following period is to build highways of higher quality
-Montenegrin part of the Adriatic – Ionic highway and the highway from the Montenegrin coast towards the border with Serbia. The system of water – supply of the Montenegrin coast and the question of the system for taking care of waste waters and hard materials, are also key assumptions of the tourist and total development of Montenegro – the Prime minister pointed out.
Saying that the financial effects of this season will be above expectations, Djukanovic said that from one year to another Montenegro is being visited by better and richer tourist clientele.
It is realistic that in the near future Montenegro can become a destination of the elite European tourism. I think that in the state politics we have accomplished everything we have bound ourselves to in order to make an ambience for this kind of development in tourism. We have to work faster on building of those contents that Monetengro misses. Marinas and golf terrains have to be the priority. We must chase the investors, and not wait for them to appear. It is also necessary to strengthen the personnel – said Djukanovic.
By pointing out that the goals the Ministry of Tourism planned for this season are fully accomplished, Minister Predrag Nenezic said that the goal is creating of a high quality tourist destination.
-We have showed that all that we have planned is being conducted in accordance with the planned dynamics, as well as all short and long term measurements defined by the Master plan. We are practically at the beginning of the creation of a destination which we want and which Montenegro claims to be. The trends are extremely good and it is very important that we can achieve a two digit rate growth of income, number of tourists and overnight staying. At the end of this month the Action plan for the next tourist season will be set – said Nenezic.
Pointing out that Budva had a successful season, the Major Rajko Kuljaca said that “those who announced that the Montenegrin coast and its most beautiful part the Riviera of Budva will be the hit of summer 2006 were right”.
That is confirmed by the extremely good capacity vacancy, the achieved incomes, and the satisfaction of the guests. Even now we can say that this was a good and successful season, which can be thanked to the investments in the Riviera of Budva which long time ago have surpassed 150 million of Euros. We expect the arrival of new investors, signing of a long term contract with “Aman resorts” for the lease of Sveti Stefan, the construction of “Hilton” hotel on the territory of Tourist area “Slovenska plaza”, hotel “Sheraton” on the territory of Becici, the reconstruction of the “Avala” hotel as well as the reconstruction of the hotel “As”.
Tourist offer for the next year we will complement with the building of the business – commercial center and an attractive aqua – park on the hill Toplis – said Kuljaca and asked from the Government and the Prime Minister to help the building of the roundabout way in Budva. The executive director of the HTE “The Riviera of Budva” Dusko Lalicevic said that at the moment in Budva there is not a single available bed in hotels.
The exquisite act of the Government, which has come in the right moment, is the decrease of the rate for the VAT for tourism from 17% to 7 %, which resulted with the liquidity of the tourist economy- said Lalicevic.
The director of the tourist enterprise “Springer and Plecer Montenegro” Dragan Ivancevic stressed that it is necessary to solve the problem of the traffic infrastructure as soon as possible, and to approach to elimination of the grey economy.
Estimating that in the next few years Montenegro will be a hit – destination, the co – owner of the company “Montenegro stars hotel group” Zarko Radulovic said that around 3.500 quality hotel beds is not enough to make Monetengro a serious and well developed tourist destination.
V.Lajovic