Tourism is in a state of decline, we need to undertake serious reform. Politics has led to this problem and changes are necessary. We need to have authorities that are able to make decisions in the interest of the economy and tourism...
The day before last, the civic forum "Ambient Devastation" in Budva, organized by the Sports and Recreational Society "Open Water", stated that Budva is in chaos, that it has become a target for those who want quick and easy money, that tourism has become a marginal activity, and that the most precious space has been "eaten up" by apartments for the market.
It was emphasized that it is urgently necessary to stop housing construction, reorganize the offer, significantly increase commercial capacities, organize the destination, and also reposition it in the market.
Tourism expert, Prof. Dr. Rade Ratković He emphasized that Budva is in "quite a bit of chaos," which began with the collapse of Yugoslavia.
“When we started to worry about the urban destruction of Budva. Even after the earthquake, one of the provisions of the 1985 general plan was to prohibit the construction of apartments in the area under the main road. At that time, the authorities were aware of the problem. This was in force until the 90s, until the Yugoslav crisis, which Montenegro was completely unprepared for. Our leaders calculated that Yugoslavia was eternal and in case of its collapse we had no backup program. We embarked on an adventure according to someone else's program, which meant conflicts with certain former republics, and then we earned sanctions. That was the introduction to this disaster that has been happening to us for three and a half decades.”
The underworld called to help us survive
Ratković assessed that the system cannot realistically function under sanctions and that, in order to survive, the underground has been called in:
"Because it can work in times of crisis, to break through blockades, people who are inclined to real business cannot do that. If it had not been done, we would have been in much greater economic problems, because when the sanctions were imposed, the shelves in the stores were empty, there was nothing to buy, there was no medicine, food, gasoline... Then the joint deal of government representatives with the underground, gray or black business began, and it continues to this day. And that's where the state suffered, apartments for the market began to be built. In the absence of guests, because we had a blockade of Western European markets on which Budva became a tourist Budva. In our hotels, 97 percent were people from the strongest, emitting markets in Europe, we had a seven-month season."
Ratković emphasized that in such a situation, what was worst for the community was developed - secondary housing, which, as he says, has led to tourism being a marginal activity today:
"Commercial capacities account for 6-7 percent of the total structure. Other Mediterranean countries were in this situation, but they remedied it by 2001. We have been facing this problem for three decades. No one in our public sector is raising this issue. They consider it normal, the lonely voices of civic activists and intellectuals are speaking out about it, however, it is not taken seriously and is labeled as a lack of patriotism. The problems will be even greater and I am afraid that if we spend another four years in this state, we will have nothing to cure."
Politics and 200 thousand beds
Tourism Marketing Expert, M.Sc. Velibor Zolak he asked how we got to the situation where we have this many beds in Budva.
He pointed out that "our tourism is based, first and foremost, on nature, and that it was conceived as a beach holiday. You will say that this is some kind of low-level tourism, but I disagree with that. All of Europe and North America moves and goes to the sea during the summer, looking for the sea, looking for the beach. It is a product that will never become obsolete. Beautiful and comfortable beaches, good service and amenities on the beaches, that will always be the strongest motivator of these movements. Unfortunately, we have come to a situation where we are over-capacity. Unfortunately, in the summer in this city you have at least a hundred thousand people, and this nature cannot handle that."
Zolak said that there are at least 200 beds in all types of accommodation in Budva. He assessed that this was due to the transition from one system to another - from socialism to wild capitalism.
"Under socialism, we had a tourism product that we could sell very well in highly developed markets. Tourism in Budva paid the price of that transformation, the emergence of a new ruling class that was created by seizing resources, primarily through the misuse of space. A very weak state, uncontrolled government. Who is to blame for that, of course the political authorities, they are responsible... You have a ruling class in which a very small number of members emerged based on their entrepreneurial abilities, and the majority through illegal, gray channels, seizing, reselling, and family ties. Public power has been used exclusively for the interests of a narrow ruling clique for the past three decades."
Zolak assessed that the public authorities still do not see the problem - that they cannot continue with this type of spatial management.
Ratković assessed that tourism in Budva is a victim of politics, collateral damage to implement certain ideologies:
"This country is run by a politicocratic system, which is the worst version of a multi-party system. The people do not elect their representatives, but party leaders through a system of obedience. And when you see the qualification structure, their speeches, you see what level it is. People with integrity, even if they showed up for the elections, would have no chance to change anything, because no one would vote for them. There has been no tourist success since the 90s, we have tourism without real tourists, a short season. Since 1991, we have been in a permanent deficit. In 2019, we had about 35 percent of the turnover of basic accommodation in the strongest Western European markets. That year was, and it has not happened again."
Ratković also recalled the arrival of Russians with "briefcases full of cash, who invested mostly in real estate and apartments."
"We were also unable to achieve satisfactory occupancy and profit on the Russian, Ukrainian and regional markets. We left the Western European market fascinated by the Russians' cash. We partnered with them, many of them were deceived by our businessmen, there was everything there. Even though the government changed, that model did not change... Our two strongest markets are Serbia and Montenegro. We get poorer guests from the Serbian market, because those with better pay go to other destinations."
He warned that we know everything about Montenegrin tourism, except "how many beds we have and how many guests we have."
Stop housing construction
Zolak emphasized that every citizen of Budva needs to be explained that "it's not five to 12":
"If we don't stop further housing construction, we've destroyed what people came to this city for."
He assessed that with the existing political leaders and parties, Montenegro has no perspective, warning that "dilentism" is at work in every sector in Budva.
He stated that the inflow of capital from Russia in 2007 and 2008 was not tourism development.
"Since 1990, we have not had tourism development, but rather the development of so-called residential tourism, or real estate tourism. This is tourism as ownership of holiday apartments. In the last 20 years, we have only had one serious hotel built - 'Splendid'. You have three projects that they are proud of, which are not a model for the development of a small destination, such as Porto Novi, Luštica Bay and the like, where the space on which thousands of beds were built was wasted at the expense of three small hotels that were built, which are not in commercial accommodation, but in real estate tourism. I can only accept Porto Montenegro as a significant undertaking because it represents the introduction of a new type of tourism - nautical."
Zolak said that there is a chance to overcome the problem, but that work must be done to raise public awareness, primarily to stop any housing construction.
Starograđanin, famous Budva restaurateur and forum mediator Luka Vuckovic He emphasized that we need to ask ourselves whether we are a city of culture, sports, exclusive tourism, or a city only for four-month beach tourism, a city of entertainment.
"Budva deserves much more. It has a centuries-old history, a beautiful indigenous city with a significant culture, a significant gastronomic offer, Budva can do much more than it does now. The system is rotten and is poisoning the people, especially for the armchair."
A joint message was sent from the forum that the demolition of the "Slovenska plaža" tourist resort should be prevented.
Zolak: We don't deserve better, that's how our tourism product is
Zolak recalled that he was part of the team that started organizing public New Year's celebrations in Budva in 2000, and that world-famous names were brought to the city.
This year, he says, he wasn't in Budva because, when he saw the program, he thought he should avoid it:
"We launched serious projects in Budva, brought world celebrities. When everyone was against it in 2000, we said let's go for it and organized the first open-air New Year's Eve. There was tremendous resistance, there were those who said who would come to Budva... However, it turned out to be successful. We organized festivals, brought world names. This year you had a program... and I ask what audience it is for. Exactly the one we deserve. We are constantly told that the problem is in communication, marketing, accessibility, give us as many airline connections as possible, as much advertising as possible... No, it's not, we have a product problem. We have a bad product. When you have unplanned product development, the market always shapes itself around it. Our customers are what we offer."
According to him, the only way out of this situation is to exert pressure on public authorities and the political sphere through a multitude of civic initiatives.
"We have political parties that are completely alienated... It's funny that opposition parties are not opposition, because you have the case of the one from the Emirates - Alabar, who was welcomed equally by those from the DPS and those in power."
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