Kotor needs a long-term strategy of sustainable tourism development, which will not be based only on reaping short-term benefits, but will create the conditions for it to be a city tailored to tourists and citizens, said the director of the Kotor Tourism Organization, Ana Nives Radović.
"All institutions in Kotor have a task to come up with a smart, rational and long-term strategy that will not only contribute to reaping short-term benefits, so that we are not only talking about higher percentages of guests from season to season or an increase in the city's earnings," Radović told Infobiro.
She added that it is necessary to create a long-term strategy for tourism in the city to be sustainable, so that Kotor does not become a destination that sooner or later someone will start to avoid.
"Kotor is really facing a big challenge in terms of creating a strategy, not only for the development of tourism, but also in general for the development and way of life in the city in the future," said Radović.
She stated that the current indicators of the visit of tourists and excursionists sound good, but that the question arises as to whether the city's infrastructure and capacities can withstand such a large number of visitors.
Radović announced that this is why the Tourist Organization intends to propose a strategy that will further seek a different way of regulating excursion tourism.
"Now, according to the Law on Tourism, the excursion tax is limited to a maximum amount of one euro, which should be reconsidered considering the number of excursionists and the problems that excursion tourism creates for the city. We should think about whether that one euro per guest is enough for us and that "Can the city continue to cover everything with that money," said Radović.
She added that there are more than half a million people who circulate around the city and spend very little money, so that it could be said that such a form of tourism is desirable.
Radović reminded that Kotor is oriented towards markets with high paying power, i.e. those in which there is already an established culture and habit of traveling and spending. These are tourists from Great Britain, the United States of America (USA), France, Scandinavia and other Western European countries.
"The plan of the Tourist Organization and the tourism industry is to concentrate on those markets, and to reduce the number of guest arrivals from which the city only receives income in the form of excursion tax and extremely low consumption," said Radović.
She said that more and more citizens are asking why Kotor has so many tourists.
"Everything together creates one big figure and one big burden for the city and the city infrastructure and affects the increasing concern of citizens, to whom we not only owe answers, but also a better and more pleasant life." The city must be not only according to the standards of tourists, but also according to the standards of citizens," said Radović.
She added that Kotor, even if the increase in prices does not contribute to the relief of the city, would have income from taxis that could be further invested in the city's infrastructure, which would improve the quality of life of the citizens.
Radović believes that the indicator of a noticeable increase in the number of guests who visit Kotor every year is not necessarily the main indicator of the improvement of the local community.
"Those figures show that we have reason to be satisfied, both when we talk about guests who stayed overnight, and when we talk about excursionists. Only in mid-September, according to the collection of the tourist tax, we reached the entire amount of last year, which means that we have one successful season", assessed Radović.
She, however, believes that these data indicate the need for better planning in order to determine what kind of city and tourism development strategy Kotor needs.
"Is it really justified to have an excursion tax of one euro, since with this number of guests and such a tax, very little can actually be done to improve the city's infrastructure", concluded Radović.
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