May 16, 2018 - The National Tourism Organization of Montenegro had an official meeting this week which was led by Pavle Radulovic, the Minister of Sustainable Development and Tourism in Montenegro. This event took place in the premises of the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism and was held on the 16th of May. This is the third constitutive session of the representatives from the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism and its directorates.
The central theme in this meeting was around new mandates for members and their representatives since the orders that were verified on the second constitutive session expired. Also, government officials presented insights and data that cover 2017 and shared information about goals and challenges in 2018. In this meeting, four-year mandates have been verified and approved to members, all following the prescribed procedure and the provisions of the Law on Tourism Organizations and the Statute of the National Tourism Organization of Montenegro.
A total of 36 members have been approved, among which are the Government of Montenegro, all local tourist organizations, as well as the companies that are strategic partners in Montenegrin tourism, higher institutions in the field of tourism and the tourism industry association and public institutions related to tourism.
Regarding the data and real indicators that reveal the work of their organization, Director of the National Tourism Organization of Montenegro, Zeljka Radak Kukavicic, presented the “Report on Execution of the Work Program of the National Tourism Organization of Montenegro” as well as the “Annual Financial Report for 2017”. She recalled the positive results of the previous tourist season when there were about two million tourist arrivals and nearly 12 million realized overnight stays. She also reminded that Montenegro had 960 million euro in tourism revenues which is a growth of 8.9% compared to 2016. She pointed out that when it comes to the structure of tourists, a significant increase was recorded from the countries such as France, Great Britain, Germany, Russia, Austria and Poland.
As well as the presented indicators, Director Radak Kukavicic shared the “National Tourism Organization of Montenegro 2018 Work Program” and “Financial Plan for 2018”, both aimed toward increasing the number of tourists from priority emitting markets. These programs also encourage diversification and product innovation, which make them entrepreneurship-friendly, which strengthens the very market in general, extends tourist season, empowers public-private partnership and increases the efficiency of the management network capacity of the tourism industry.
Parliament adopted these materials regarding the plans for 2018 and concluded that in 2017, the National Tourism Organization of Montenegro implemented all the activities in a high-quality manner, while at the same time, kept an eye on the available budget. This significantly contributed to the improvement of the image and recognition of the country as a tourist destination on the international market and managed to set continuous positive trends in tourism traffic compared to the previous year.
