Also this season, tourists and visitors to the Black Lake are welcomed by the unkempt and abandoned construction site of the Durmitor Hotel.
The company owned by the Greek businessman Petros Statis suspended the works two years ago, and says that the fate of the Zabljak hotel depends on the resolution of the misunderstanding between the state and Amman regarding the hotel on Sveti Stefan.
While the people of Žabljak are waiting for the first five-star hotel and elite tourists, Television News reminds what has been done so far from what was promised when the foundation stone was laid in 2019.
"Today, in Žabljak, we are starting to create value that not only the people of Žabljak will be proud of. This will be a complex hotel of global value and content," said then Prime Minister Duško Marković on October 23, 2019.
Five years ago, during the laying of the foundation stone for the Durmitor Hotel, the Government led by the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) announced the development of Žabljak and the north as a whole.
Everything in 2019 really indicated that this project will be the pride of all of Montenegro.
The building, which was started by the Durmitor Hotel and Villas company of the Greek businessman Petros Statis, after a year and a half of intensive work took on the shape of a former hotel that was the pride of Zabljak and Yugoslav tourism.
But, as it usually happens in Montenegro, the situation unexpectedly changed very quickly. The construction of the new Hotel Durmitor, on the site of the old one that collapsed under the veil of transition, was supposed to be completed in May 2022. However, the works were preserved in November of the same year and have not continued until today.
Instead of the promised five-star luxury hotel, visitors to the Black Lake will be greeted by the unkempt and abandoned construction site of the Durmitor Hotel again this season.
The TV Vijesti team visited Durmitor National Park (NP) and was convinced that the first thing tourists who come to Black Lake see when they get off the bus is this purposeless concrete building, in a natural environment that leaves one breathless.
And that the situation will not change in the foreseeable future, it can be concluded from the answer of Statis' company Adriatik Properties to our question, when the work on the Durmitor hotel will be continued and completed.
"Further works have been suspended because Aman will not manage another hotel while there is a dispute over the management of the Sveti Stefan hotel. Therefore, the Durmitor hotel depends on the outcome of the agreement regarding the functioning of the Sveti Stefan hotel," said Adriatik Properties.
A Greek businessman bought the old Durmitor for 650 thousand euros. So far, he has invested three million 760 thousand euros in the construction, instead of the promised 20 million. The promised 55 apartments and 12 comfortable villas today have only concrete outlines, and the planned spa and wellness center, swimming pools, gyms, conference rooms and other amenities are also pending. And that waiting does not help the development of tourism in Žabljak, the local Tourist Organization (TO) points out.
"I hope that in 2025, the state and the investor will sit down and find a real solution for all of us, because the hotel Durmitor itself is in a beautiful location, and of all the hotels we currently have, it could be put into operation in the fastest period of time and he would mean to all of us here," said Stojan Abazović, director of TO Žabljak.
Especially since the hotel accommodation capacities in Žabljak make up only six percent of the total accommodation capacities.
"We don't have a single five-star elite hotel, and you know that Durmitor is the most beautiful location in Europe and the world and deserves five-star hotels and some elite tourists," said Abazović.
Five years ago, the Montenegrin Prime Minister had a visionary view of the development of tourism in Žabljak.
"Everything will be different here when this hotel is opened," said Marković at the time.
And when it will, we don't know.
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