English

Postseason badly affected by the virus, next season might be better

Damir Davidović, FOTO: Pobjeda

Taking into account the current epidemiological situation and the continuous rise in the coronavirus infections, we cannot talk about the post-season which might have compensated for the losses of the tourism industry caused by the coronavirus pandemic, State Secretary in the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism, MORiT, Mr Damir Davidović, told Pobjeda daily.

Having in mind the current epidemiological situation, we must make a joint effort to prepare well for the upcoming winter tourism season and the next year’s summer season. The summer season, according to him, should be better because all tourism officials are facing the same situation.

“There were tendencies from European and regional sources to bring in more tourists during the post-season, but with the current epidemiological situation, other countries are introducing restrictive measures for traveling to Montenegro and this significantly limits the possibility to compensate for losses in September and October,” Mr Davidović said.

He underlines that this year has been extremely difficult for all tourism officials, as the epidemic confounded all the expectations regarding revenues, arrivals and overnights.

“We had expectations with record-breaking arrivals/revenues for this year. The year started well. We recorded growth in the first two months despite bad results in winter centers due to the lack of snow. However, the coronavirus pandemic has changed everything.”

This is the problem that no one but ourselves can solve by adhering to the prescribed measures, according to him.

“We have to abide by the measures and recommendations of the Public Health Institute, but still hope that the epidemiological situation will get better through a disciplined approach of all of us so that we can start preparing for it as soon as possible.”

Mr Davidović doesn’t hide that they expected somewhat better post-season, as projections from the beginning of summer envisaged reduced epidemic growth during summer months and a spike in arrivals in Sept. and Oct. having in mind that great many of tourists postponed their vacations for the peak summer season.

Speaking of losses, they are, according to Mr Davidović, enormous.

“Tourism decline has been massive. In the first seven months, we achieved about 15% of last year’s tourism turnover, mainly number of tourists, overnights and the collection of tourist tax.”

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