The weaker season in Montenegro is not the result of price increases, but poor management of the destination – the owner of Balkans Luxury Concierge DMC Ivana Karanikić points out, adding that the worse season in Croatia is a consequence of price increases.
– Montenegrin tourism needs a reset and return to factory settings. Before any activities, decision makers must have education in the field of tourism, experience and most importantly – vision. In order to avoid the pitfalls of exclusively political staffing, bring as minister a person who, as the Croatian Minister of Tourism, graduated from the Faculty of Transportation – majoring in railways.
– We had to explain where Montenegro is in general. There is a lack of organized promotion, but until Montenegro makes a clear decision in which direction it wants to develop, promotion will be spontaneous – says Karanikić.
As for Croatia, she points out that the problem is the value the guest gets for the service/product they pay for.
Regarding air connectivity, she agrees that we are an air destination and that it is important for the development of quality tourism, but she considers the strategy of contracting low-budget flights to be a cardinal mistake.
– With such flights, we attract low-budget guests, we create a burden on the infrastructure – from the airport to the national one – which is bad anyway, and the result is far from the one we want. As discriminatory as it may sound, we are too small and too rich a country to focus on guests who can barely afford a plane ticket and then eat at Wally’s and other supermarkets, whose main reason for coming is to take photos for Instagram, not to learn anything about the history and culture of the country where they live, discover excellent Montenegrin gastronomy and enjoy the natural beauty. Because that is the point of travel – says Karanikić, adding that we need airlines such as Qatar Airways, Emirates or Saudia Airlines, whose share in the total number of flights would be at least 90 percent, which would automatically attract quality guests.
– Montenegro is also a winter destination, which we often forget, and a better air connection would enable the arrival of guests in the winter period, which would reduce the current seasonality – says Karanikić.
Cruisers are the worst thing that happened to us
Karanikić points out that cruise ships are the worst thing that could happen to Croatian and Montenegrin tourism.
– It was presented to us as an opportunity not to be missed, with the fact that those who brought them forgot to mention all the negative things that cruise tourism brings. If we ignore the fact that passengers on cruise ships spend little or nothing because everything is insured on board, so the benefit for the local community is minor, we must not turn a blind eye to the damage caused to the destination. Based on research, Hrvoje Carić from the Croatian Institute for Tourism came to the devastating figure that Croatia earns EUR 52.8 million annually from cruise ships, while EUR 390 million is spent annually on cleaning up the environment – Karanikić points out.
