The president of the Montenegrin Tourism Association (CTU) Zarko Radulovic has urged the competent authorities in the ministries of interior and foreign affairs to abolish visa requirements for tourists from China. As he said, it would increase tourism revenues by 25%, which means up to €220m more in the budget.
He expects the tourism industry to achieve €900m revenues this year.
“That is what the market facts show, but there is also something that depends on us. Even these record breaking revenues would be exceeded if the competent ministries abolished visas for the Chinese,” Radulovic told Pobjeda newspaper.
He announced that this year CTU would do its best to achieve it.
“We will not let the irresponsible and incompetent individuals who work on the visa regime and who have no sense for the issue to hamper something that all the citizens would feel benefits of,” Radulovic said.
According to him, the administration has to realise that it should be a service to economy, which is crucial for all the people in Montenegro.
“The Chinese are beginning to travel from October, which means that they would extend our tourist season to the whole year. In that case, I guarantee that the hotels, which are currently closed, would be 50–60% occupied in the winter,” Radulovic said.
He added that this year CTU would fight for lowering VAT on tourist services from 19% to 7%.
