02 June 2019 - Connections from Barcelona to the Balkans are becoming even more diverse as Ryanair launches a new route to Podgorica in June.

The good news for fans of the Catalan capital is that flights from and to Podgorica will be maintained throughout the year.

As TMN reported earlier, Montenegrin Airports have invested enormous effort to establish the direct airline Podgorica - Barcelona, bearing in mind the fact that the Pyrenees peninsula is one of the most significant markets in Europe.

"As I said earlier, we took a proactive approach and established contact with companies within markets that we think are not open enough. One of the most important markets is the Pyrenees peninsula and having in mind all factors, we decided to do everything to establish the direct line Podgorica - Barcelona," Danilo Orlandić, Montenegro Airports’ executive director said in an interview for CdM.

Podgorica – Barcelona flights will launch on June 6 and run once per week, each Thursday, until October 6, after which the route will be maintained twice per week, on Thursdays and Sundays. This marks Ryanair's second new service to the Montenegrin capital this year, following Bologna. Further flight details can be found at the ExYu Aviation Website.

As CdM learns, the significance of this line is enormous, as Podgorica Airport will be the only airport in the region that will be connected to Barcelona throughout the year. Other airports have seasonal lines with the capital of Catalonia, so Podgorica will be the point of uniting this part of Europe with Barcelona outside the season.

This is the first direct airline linking Montenegro and Spain.

Source: Cafe del Montenegro

01 June 2019 - Starting this summer, Montenegrin beaches will receive a guide in the form of an offline android application. The Enjoy Montenegro Coast: Offline Guide is intended primarily for tourists and visitors of the Montenegrin coast, to make it easier to choose the desired beach, but also to locals who want to get to know the Montenegrin coast as reported by the Public Enterprise for the Coastal Zone of Montenegro.

"The application contains a user-friendly offline map with information about the selected beach, marina or protected area on the coast," said representatives of the Public Enterprise for Coastal Zone of Montenegro

When choosing a beach, the application will calculate precise mileage from the current location of the user, and then draw the shortest route to the destination.

In the drop-down menu, the user can single out the beaches or marinas with prestigious ecological recognition of the Blue Flag, and there are 30 of those in Montenegro. At all times, the user can check the quality of seawater at around 100 different bathing places along the Montenegrin Coast.

The application was created by the Public Enterprise for Coastal Zone of Montenegro, which manages Montenegrin beaches and coastal infrastructure (marinas, ports, pier, berths).

Enjoy Montenegro Coast: Offline Guide android application can be downloaded for free on Google Play Store. Once downloaded, the application functions in the offline mode, that is, no internet connection is required for its use, as explained by the Public Enterprise for Coastal Zone of Montenegro.

June 1, 2019 - Within the first quarter of the year, the hotel Regent Porto Montenegro realized 10% growth, indicating a positive upward trend already for 2019. Within the core tourist season, the number of the reservations is still on the same level as last year, said Regent’s Sales and Marketing Manager, Ivan Rudolf Gajić.

The leisure segment has been a significant focus for the hotel’s Sales and Marketing team, with the aim to support the 2019 Spring and Summer seasons. Regent’s representatives held over 300 meetings with sales calls hosted in Europe, Middle East, Russia, and the UK.

Regent Porto Montenegro’s presence in the European luxury travel market has been highlighted further with the attendance at ITB Berlin, IHG Expo in London and Traveller Made - Essence of Luxury Travel in Marbella. The sales team initiated and completed sales calls internationally to Istanbul, GCC road show with Claviger agency as well as in Dubai, Moscow, St Petersburg in Russia and London and Chester in the UK.

“Amour Europe Vienna and Annual DWP Congress Dubai were both attended with the aim to promote Regent and Montenegro as the ideal wedding destination. With 64 meetings completed in total, the outcomes of these two visits have already seen a larger volume of interest and a higher number of confirmed weddings in 2020,” said Ivan Rudolf Gajić, hosting yesterday the meeting with local journalists of Tivat.

“Throughout all these fairs it is fantastic to hear that Montenegro is already well known and respected as a destination delivering quality to visitors,” Gajic was happy to emphasize. 

The most important markets for Regent Porto Montenegro, according to the number of arrivals, remain Great Britain, USA, and Russia.

“Within the core tourist season, the number of reservations is on the same level as last year. Given that the weather forecast has not been as favorable so far this year; guests from our traditional markets have been enquiring but hesitating to make reservations, rather waiting to confirm concrete plans. This conveys the changing dynamic of holiday-makers in general, who now choose to delay their plans and make last minute reservations,” marks Ivan Rudolf Gajić, adding: “The last year was a record one and it is always a challenge to continue the growth in that manner however we plan to complete the business goals fully. Until the end of the year, we expect to achieve a rise of 10 % and conclude the business year."

Regent Porto Montenegro Management is also very satisfied with MICE segment growth, as well as incentive travel bookings, contributing the extraordinary results in the first and second quarter of the year.

In October this year, the hotel and the Porto Montenegro marina will host a Private Luxury Forum which gathers the most eminent agencies that are in charge of sales and promotion of the luxury travels. Porto Montenegro will welcome the top influencers, innovators, and visionaries of the luxury industry.

“We will host 85 agents who will list Montenegro, a hugely positive sales promotion for Montenegro as a destination. Additionally, around 100 representatives of the luxury brands will attend the Forum. Attendees will enjoy a tailored program of activities to show off the destination, which will include sailing through the Boka Bay with Jadran school ship, visit of the national parks and other activities that encompass outdoors and active tourism. We believe that this is a great opportunity and a worthwhile investment in the process of the positioning of Montenegro as the luxury tourism destination with the ultimate aim of achieving the desired positive business results in the years to come,” Ivan Rudolf Gajić explained.

Regent Porto Montenegro continues investing in emerging markets of GCC countries and Israel in order to position Montenegro as an attractive choice as a leisure destination, with a particular focus on Saudi Arabia and UAE.

“We have a specific representative who actively contributes toward the promotion of Montenegro and Regent Hotel. During our participation at the ATM in Dubai in April this year as part of the IHG stand, we learnt that the main challenge is the lack of direct flights. Thankfully, the cities of the neighboring countries such as Sarajevo, do have direct flights to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, making travel at least possible for this market. Saudi Arabia is our best market within GCC and we hope that the future negotiations of the government and airports of Montenegro will be successful so that will be directly linked with this market in the near future,” says Gajić.

Israel is also an important market for Regent. “Given the direct flights from Tel Aviv to Tivat, we believe this market will see good growth and that there is strong potential for the positioning of Montenegro as a key luxury destination for tourists from the region, whilst the offer of hotel Regent can be extremely attractive to the HNW guests specifically,” concluded Gajić.

31 May 2019 - “We invite all citizens and tourists to honour us with their presence at the city port Škver, so that we can jointly salute the participants of the first Herceg Novi regatta – Herceg Novi Sailing Tour with a feast full of delicious fish and wine!“, says the official invitation of Tourist Organization of Herceg Novi for the regatta which starts on June 1.

As TMN previously reported, the first Herceg Novi regatta named Herceg Novi Sailing Tour is being organized by the Tourist Organization of Herceg Novi in ​​cooperation with the Sailing Club Jugola Grakalić, the Municipality of Herceg Novi and the Hotel Lazure.

The event, which will take place on June 1, includes an umpires and skippers boat race. The regatta will be held in the waters of the Bay of Kotor within the territory that belongs to the Herceg Novi Municipality.

The sailing tour, which will mark the official beginning of the 2019 summer sailing season, starts in front of Marina Lazure in Meljine and runs around the island of Mamula. Then the ships sail towards their goal - the city port of Herceg Novi.

Fifteen teams are expected to compete, and the Montenegrin sailor that competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the Men's Laser class, Milivoj Dukić will also take part in the sailing tour. The list of the participants in the regatta will include musician and sailor from Herceg Novi, Rambo Amadeus.

The sailors will meet for the race on June 1 at 9:30 am, and the official start of the regatta will be at 11 am. The finishing point of the sailing tour is the city port Škver, and sailing enthusiasts can await the boats at this point at 1 pm.

The Tourist Organization of Herceg Novi and the Sailing Club Jugola Grakalić have prepared a traditional fish and wine celebration accompanied by local entertainment and music from 1 pm to 5 pm. The award ceremony will be held also on June 1, at 9 pm.

The representatives of the Tourist Organization of Herceg Novi are inviting all sailing enthusiasts to experience the unique regatta moment when the first boat within the regatta officially starts the race for the first time on June 1. All visitors will be able to enjoy an exciting and competitive racing and the onshore camaraderie!

30 May 2019 - The Mayor of Podgorica Ivan Vuković and his associates opened the Ankara Boulevard in Podgorica on May 30, 2019. The newly constructed 330-meter long road extends from the intersection of Ljubljanska Street with Ljubomir Rašović Boulevard to the Cetinje Boulevard.

"The city administration is very satisfied, because in the last seven months this is the third new boulevard we are opening in Podgorica. We started with the road in Zeta, then on Independence Day - 21st of May we opened a boulevard in Donja Gorica, and today we are officially opening the Ankara Boulevard,” said Mayor Vuković.

He explained that the city administration is investing large amounts of money in the infrastructure of the Capital, and that the completed projects are of high quality and great use to the citizens. “We invested 700 thousand euros in this latest project, and in a relatively short period we managed to build about 7 kilometres of new boulevard roads on the territory of Podgorica. This is truly a great pace, and we will continue to work with the same intensity in the future," said Vuković.

The Mayor congratulated the city services on their excellent work and added that another new 110-meters long road was recently completed near the Ankara Boulevard, which is about half a kilometre of new roads in this part of the city.

"Apart from what is “visible to the naked eye” there are completely new installations set up under this roadway, a new infrastructure that will service all the necessary residential and business facilities that are currently located in this area and which will be built in the vicinity. Ankara Boulevard will be a very useful road not only to people living in this part of the city, but also to frequent traffic, because this road will likely reduce the car jams that are common at the roundabout near the Public Service building," Vuković concluded.

23 May 2019 - The Agency for Development and Protection of Orjen will present a new tourist offer in Herceg Novi on Friday, May 24th, the historic Time Machine of Herceg Novi tour.

The promotional tour will be organized for media representatives, Tourist Organization of Herceg Novi, tourist agencies and hotel guests from the area.

The start of the tour is at 8 AM from the square of Nikola Đutković, at the Clock Tower, the symbol of Herceg Novi.

"We are producing dominant fortifications over the city, Kanli tower and Španjol, a reminder of both the long-standing Turkish and the short-lived Spanish authorities. Walking through history, we follow the route of the main hiking route that connected Herceg Novi with mountain for centuries and in that role it existed until the last quarter of the 20th century, until the villagers of the surrounding villages were able to go down to the market with a stock of livestock, full products" as explained from the Agency .

Along the path today, there were numerous catering facilities, such as Avramović's cormorant, which was even visited by Prince Aleksandar Karađorđević during his walks in the hinterland of Herceg Novi.

"Crossing the Matkovo Bridge (a coherent stone building) we enter deeper into the hinterland, into the Kotobilj battlefield, a crucial event for the liberation of the Herceg Novi region from the Turkish authorities. Today it is a place in the pleasant environment of dense forests of coastal pine and cypress, with more organized rest areas for walkers," said representatives of the Agency for Development and Protection of Orjen.

The walking tour is adapted to the average visitor and requires a minimum physical fitness (since about 350 meters of climbing altitude difference must be mastered). It is necessary to announce a minimum of 48h earlier. With sightseeing and resting, the tour lasts for 4 to 5 hours, of which about 3 hours of the trip is being walked.

Suitable shoes (not sandals and flip-flops), small backpack with water and food, spare clothes, protective creams (sun and mosquitoes), rain protection, mobile phone and, possibly, personal accessories for first aid are also required on this tour. The organizer is obliged to take all measures for the safe implementation of the programme, however, participation in the Time Machine tour is at your own risk.

Source: Radio Jadran News

May 23, 2019 - Mountaineering Club Subra from Herceg Novi this weekend organizes the jubilee 20th Orjen Marathon, and in cooperation with the Orjen Development and Protection Agency prepares an attractive program for all generations, which will last from 24-26 May.