Kotor – The year at the end was, in a positive sense, above all expectations of the Port of Kotor, so the income will exceed that of the record 2019, announced the president of the Management Board of that company, Ljiljana Popović Moškov.
She told Radio Kotor, in the program “Život je more” (Life is the sea), that this year 463 ships with about 416 thousand passengers entered the port of Kotor.
“When it comes to passengers, it is about 95 percent of the realization compared to the record 2019. There were fewer passengers, because they were more careful, and ship owners still had some restrictive measures in force that related to how much they could will be a load per ship, so the number of passengers is 33 percent less than in 2019”, said Popović Moškov.
She announced the arrival of 461 ships with 590 thousand passengers for this year, the Radio Kotor portal reports.
According to Popović Moškov, the covid years, 2020 and the previous one, left a lot of damage on the operations of the Port of Kotor.
She reminded that in April 2020, the Government made a decision to ban all vessels from entering the Port of Kotor.
The decision was in effect until April of last year, so the negative effects of the pandemic were reflected in the mentioned year as well.
“In 2020, only eight ships entered the port of Kotor, in the past 64, and previously, in 2019, 460 ships. Then you can imagine what kind of mark those two “pandemic” years left on the company’s operations. That’s why it can be said that the last year exceeded all our expectations”, said Popović Moškov.
She announced that during this year Kotor was visited by around 800 yachts, which brought 3.3 thousand passengers.
That is about 200 of these vessels less than in previous years.
They are also planning a significant investment in the Port of Kotor next year. A marina will be built with many more access points for yachts.
Currently, there are about 60 places available in the marina.
The future marina will have 162 moorings, of which 90 are for yachts, 44 communal – for citizens and 28 moorings in the park.
“The project documentation has been completed. The project is worth a little over one million EUR. The marina will have three piers, a breakwater, and complete infrastructure. Construction is financed from loans. It is about an excellent credit arrangement with the Investment and Development Fund (IRF) signed sometime before the summer. The loan is one million EUR with a fixed interest rate of three percent and a two-year grace period and five years of repayment. The contract is expected in mid-January, the first blocks at the end of that month, and the construction part to be completed by mid-March. The contractor is the foreign company Maritek, which specializes in the construction of marinas,” concluded Popović Moškov, local media reports.
