Current announcements do not inspire much hope that this year's tourist season will be significantly more successful than the previous one, said Rade Ratković, Dean of the Faculty of Tourism.
"We should be satisfied with any result, even if it was even slightly better than last year's, and our eyes are on the tourist season next year," said Ratković for the CGNews agency, as reported by the Mina business agency.
Ratković assessed that the current moment in the tourism industry is quite confused.
"Until recently, we had a record-breaking pandemic, which calmed down thanks to restrictive measures, and we should continue working in that direction," said Ratković.
According to him, you should be aware that the main time for preparing the season is lost, because the season for organized tourism is prepared a year in advance.
That time, as he claims, was spent both last year and this year on election activities.
According to Ratković, now is the right time to start preparations for organized tourism aimed at Western markets.
"We have arguments that we managed to calm the pandemic and certificates from the World Tourism Council that we are a safe destination, which will stimulate Western partners to enter the pre-negotiation process in order to have prices in September and start promoting the next tourist season. We cannot have economically sustainable tourism without Western markets", said Ratković.
He said that the eastern market of the region is a "consolation prize".
"Citizens from these markets have a large number of apartments in our country and will primarily fill their apartments. Only after that, domestic publishers can count on guests and that in case the prices are low", added Ratković.
He believes that Montenegro, if the prices are at a realistic level, especially for hotel accommodation, will not be interesting for guests from those markets, considering their paying power.
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