Croatia has been complaining about weak summer season, which is probably happening due to the high prices. The situation in Montenegro is different and our prices, according to foreign tourists, haven’t changed compared to the last year and correspond to the quality of our offer.
In an interview with Pobjeda daily, Managing Director of the Directorate for the Development of Tourism Destination in the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism, MORiT, Mr Ćazim Hodžić, says prices in the Montenegrin cities are the same as last year.
“We haven’t changed the prices, but I have to say that many places enhanced the quality of their offer,” Mr Hodžić underlines.
He claims Montenegro is not an expensive tourism destination. Our country offers packages for high and low net-worth individuals, according to him.
Comparing the tourism offer with the region, Mr Hodžić says we’re a way cheaper than Croatia. As for the results of this year’s summer season, Montenegro visitor numbers hit record levels, but it’s too early to speak about the revenues and the number of tourists.
General Manager in Hilton Podgorica, Mr Nemanja Nikolić, also believes that we cannot categorize a destination as cheap or expensive, but we can say that certain amenities in a destination are cheap or expensive.
“As for Montenegro, it has diversified tourism offer, that is, we are oriented towards both –high net-worth individuals and those spending less money in our country. Unfortunately, we cannot describe our country as the leading tourism destination as we need much more than 5-star hotels.”
All tourism destinations, according to him, are easily accessible and “it’s important to understand that Croatia or Greece are not our only competitors but all the other destinations similar to ours.”
President of small and medium-sized hotels in the Montenegrin Tourism Association, Mr Dejan Rađenović, thinks prices easily succumb to changes thanks to the internet.
“Every tourism company/entrepreneur determines its own pricing policy. Prices easily succumb to everyday changes thanks to the internet, depending on the offer and demand in accommodation capacities,” Mr Rađenović emphasized.
He continued: “In my opinion, Montenegro is not too expensive. Tourists can choose different kinds of accommodation, depending on their finances.”
Grey economy – a serious problem
President of small and medium-sized hotels in the Montenegrin Tourism Association, Mr Dejan Rađenović, believes prices are not the greatest problem of the Montenegrin tourism. Rather, the problem is grey economy.
“In addition, this year the authorities did a lot in order to reduce noise and that’s a huge step forward,” he says.
