The wave of warm weather has filled all the private catering facilities in the mountains around Berane, so more beds are being sought in this municipality.
This is what the local tourism organization told Portal RTCG, indicating the need for further development of hospitality facilities and faster valorization of some attractive destinations, such as Jelovica mountain, where the new road from Berane to Kolašin passes.
As the director of the Tourist Organization of Berane, Ivan Radević, said, after a slow start due to bad weather conditions, the season is now more than good.
– All rural households and eco cottages in the mountains on the territory of our municipality are fully occupied. This year shows how much mountain tourism is growing, and it’s a real shame that we didn’t welcome the season with more new hospitality facilities – he said.
He explained that Berane currently has a total of 215 hostel beds, as well as another 23 beds in registered rural households.
– The largest number of hotel capacities is in the city. We now need hotels in the mountains, because foreign tourists are not looking for cafes and concrete, but untouched nature, peace and quiet, organic food – said Radević.
According to him, the sharp increase in mountain tourism last year resulted in 12.5 thousand reported and registered overnight stays, which is two hundred percent more than in 2019, when 4.5 thousand hotel overnight stays were registered.
– We will see how it will be this year, but judging by the current occupancy of all capacities, as well as the announcements that the wave of warm or rather hot weather will last, this will probably be a record year for the number of overnight stays – said the director of TOB.
Berane had its tourist boom forty years ago, when it occupied an important place on the tourist map of Montenegro, as an unavoidable transit tourist destination for foreign tourists.
At that time, the hotel tourism company Berane was operating in this city, which included several hotels, motels, restaurants and cafes, when the Jelovica hotel was also active in its structure.
HTP Berane was privatized in 2003, and the new owners quickly sold off everything they could, so tourism in this municipality went downhill.
– Since the complete reconstruction of the Berane Hotel, things have started to get better. However, foreign tourists in this area are looking for peace in the mountains, and that is why we have to work faster on the valorization of the Jelovice mountain – said Radević.
He appealed for the completion of work on the Klisura tunnel, which brings this mountain closer to Kolašin for only ten minutes, as soon as possible, which would speed up the valorization of Jelovica as the largest resource in the municipality of Berane.
That there is already a large number of tourists on that mountain, the RTCG team was convinced by visiting some of the eco-katuns.
The owner of one of these catering establishments on Jelovica said that it is booked until the end of the season, and that there are a large number of foreign tourists.
– Here, even without the tunnel, we are working at full capacity. Looking for an extra bed. This is a mountain that offers a lot to tourists in terms of so-called active vacations. A combination of hiking, sleeping in modern wooden bungalows, swimming in a pool at a height of almost one thousand and a half meters. We try to satisfy all their requests, and still have privacy far from the city – said the restaurateur.
On this mountain, as they explain, there is no need to carry water supplies, because there are natural sources of drinking water practically at every step. Watermelon and beer are cooled in one of them, next to this tourist resort.
– This is the coldest water on Jelovica. The temperature of the water from that source is only four degrees. Here you don’t need a refrigerator to cool the beer – says the restaurateur.
On one of the private estates nearby, right next to the cottage, there is a beech tree that is several hundred years old, and the view from there reveals incredible scenes of untouched nature and the peaks of the Bjelasica mountain massif.
From that tree, the owner hung a net for rest, which can be used by anyone from mountaineers and tourists.
– In this place were the mountain apartments of my great-grandfathers, grandfathers and father. I spend every free moment here, and I gladly welcome tourists and mountaineers free of charge when they want to refresh themselves and rest after a tiring tour on the mountain – said the owner.
It is similar on all other mountains around Berane, and the same is true on the territory of Andrijevica municipality, especially on Komovi.
– Certainly, mountain tourism is in great development. Interest is increasing, and our people recognize it, so numerous private tourist settlements are springing up, and the number of individual households that are registered as tourist is increasing year by year – said Radević.
The local tourist organization in Berane points only to the need for more efficient inspection control, because, as they emphasize, a large number of settlements and households are not registered, so it is difficult to get the full number of visitors during the season.
