Although they have not yet reduced the balance sheets, in the tourist organizations in the region of the north-east of Montenegro, Beran, Andrijevica and Plav, they are satisfied with the summer tourist season, which they say is either at the level of that of 2019 or close to that result.
Director of TO Berane Ivan Radević he says that all tourist facilities in the mountains during July and August were full of foreigners, especially Poles, French and Germans.
"These are people you could not see on the streets of the city. They are not interested in that, they were there for the so-called active vacation. That is why the capacities of the eco-katun and all rural households registered for tourism in the Beran municipality were at full capacity. I think that was also the case in the region," said Radević.
According to him, this year there is a sharp increase in the number of tourist rural households, eco-katuns and eco-mountain catering establishments.
"As a tourist organization, we were at their service as much as possible by organizing various events," said Radević.
For the next tourist season, he announced the enrichment of the offer, and even the construction of a zip line, above the Tifran gorge, from the top of the old road of King Alexander to the other side of Tifran, above the river Lim.
"It will be for those who crave adrenaline. We haven't done all the calculations yet, but if we express it in terms of money, then we could say that the money was mostly left by tourists from Serbia, while those from Western European countries were looking for ways to get there as cheaply as possible", said TO Berane director.
His colleague at the head of the Plav Tourist Organization is also satisfied Samira Canović, which points out that this season at the end of July was at the level of 2019.
"At one point it was even more than that year, but we will see at the end when we bring down the final balance. All in all, this tourist season in Plav was more than good", said Canović.
She points out that Plav with its attractive surroundings attracts more and more foreign tourists, mostly from Germany, Slovakia and Romania.
"We did not expect such a turnout. There were also Dutch, English, French. We have a route that is attractive to all of them, namely the Balkan Peaks. "A lot of them were visiting Hridsko jezero and there were full of tourist households and eco-villages on the way to that lake," says Canović.
According to her, the sudden increase in domestic tourists in Plav happened after the opening of the Cijevna Zatrijebacka border crossing and the official opening of the road through Albania, which brought this municipality closer to Podgorica, only seventy kilometers away.
"We are particularly pleased, because it means that next year we can expect many more domestic tourists from the southern and central parts of Montenegro who want to get to know this area and all the beauties of Lake Plav and the National Park 'Prokletije'," said Canović.
Director of the Tourist Organization Andrijevica expresses somewhat less satisfaction Branko Djukic, who assesses that tourists in the territory of that municipality were mostly passing through and did not stay long.
"There were a lot of them, but we don't have precise records. Many did not even apply to the local tourist organization. We, on the other hand, did everything we could by organizing various events, such as the 'Visit to Komove'. But, I would say, it can always be better," says Đukić.
He points out that foreign tourists were very often self-organized, so it happened that in groups of twenty or more, they would spend several days camping in an ordinary meadow near Lim.
"We have to be better prepared for the next season, when the highway section is finished. We expect that there will be more tourists then, and we must introduce some way to keep records of their stay and to register those who have not done so before," says Đukić.
Among the local population in these municipalities, there is an increasing number of those who turn to mountain tourism, so that in this region there are many more eco-camps on the mountains, eco-tourism and catering facilities and households that register for rural tourism, compared to earlier years.
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