English

Level of shadow economy decreased, highest occupancy rate in Aug-2019

Žabljak

This year’s summer season in Žabljak started with low temperatures, which greatly affected tourist arrivals, Ms Vanja Krgović Šarović, director of the Žabljak Tourism Organization openly admitted to Pobjeda, a daily.

“Many bookings were cancelled in the beginning of the season, but the situation got better in July, while we had a record-breaking number of tourists last week. If we take into account the hotels and private accommodation, the occupancy rate in Žabljak now is around 85 per cent, and we are optimistic about Sept. as well and hope to make up for missed sunny days in the beginning of summer.”

Ms Krgović Šarović continued: “We are especially glad to say that shadow economy has decreased and we recorded an increase in the collection of a city tax, which is best confirmed by the fact that 41 per cent more money poured into the state budget compared to last year.”

Data from the Žabljak Tourism Organization showed this town had 2,470 visitors in June last year, while this year in June Žabljak welcomed 3,515 visitors. As for July 2018, it had around 5,000 visitors, and in July this year, the number of people taking holidays in Žabljak was 7,400. In the first half of August 2018, Žabljak received 3,214 tourists and in the same period this year, it hosted 4,260 visitors.

Whatever one might think about these figures, the truth is that we can see a significant decline in the size of shadow economy, i.e. we have an increase in the number of tourists visiting Žabljak compared to last year.

Ms Krgović Šarović also stressed there were more international visits to Žabljak this year, mostly from the Western Balkan countries.

“The majority of visitors were from Germany and France. Of course, we do have domestic visitors but they rarely check in. In September we expect the majority of visitors from the WB countries.”

 

 

Send this to a friend