November 30, 2018 - More new flights to Montenegro as Lufthansa announce new services to Tivat from both Munich and Frankfurt, starting in April 2019. 

It is the season of announcements of new flights to Montenegro, and, as recently reported by ExYuAviation, Lufthansa is entering the Montenegrin market from April to October next year, with two key connections to Tivat, from both Frankfurt and Munich. 

All flights will be operated by Airbus A319 with 138 seats. Timings are carefully chosen to allow excellent connections within Europe as well to selected intercontinental destinations.

The move by Lufthansa has been under discussion for several months, as previously reported by TMN, and it can be seen as a first step into a potentially lucrative market, but one with several unknowns. The goal is to build on this initial first step and ultimately to turn the routes into year-round connections, which would increase the attractiveness and accessibility of Montenegro in the winter months, as well as providing additional choice for luxury guests of places such as the Chedi Lustica Bay and Porto Montenegro. Speaking about the potential arrival of Lufthansa earlier this year, Danilo Orlandic, Head of the Airports of Montenegro, said:

"Lufthansa, as one of the most important carriers in Europe and the world, should be our partner. The German market is extremely important for our tourism industry. Furthermore, German airports have excellent worldwide connectivity, so the launch of new routes to this market is vital for the public."

Please find the schedules of the new flights below.

Frankfurt – Tivat

Operations will start 14APR until mid of October 2019 every Sunday with Airbus A319

LH1468                  Frankfurt             departure           15:30

                                Tivat                      arrival                    17:30

LH 1469                Tivat                      departure           18:20

                                Frankfurt             arrival                    20:30

Munich – Tivat

Operations will start 13APR until end of October 2019 every Saturday with Airbus A319

LH 1732                Munich                 departure           07:25

                                Tivat                      arrival                    09:15

LH 1733                Tivat                      departure           09:55

                                Munich                 arrival                    11:50    

To follow all the new flights to Montenegro for next summer, follow the TMN dedicated page.

November 7, 2018 - This year, Tivat will celebrate the town’s celebration day on November 21st with the "November Days" event, which, over 23 days, will have as many as 47 different political, social, cultural, entertainment and sports programs.

"November Days " are a tradition and honor for us. We have designed this year's event to be as innovative as possible, with better quality and content, so that all structures of our population will be able to find something for themselves, from the youngest to the oldest," said the Mayor of Tivat Siniša Kusovac.

At the press conference, the program of events was presented which began today and will continue until November 29th. The conference included the Culture and Social Affairs Secretary Dubravka Nikcevic, Secretary of Youth, Sports and Social Affairs Darka Ognjanovic, as well as the representatives of the Center for Culture, Tourism Organizations and Brand New Tivat.

Nikčevič underlined that in addition to the Municipality, Tourism Organization, Center for Culture and Brand New Tivat, a whole range of institutions, organizations, sports clubs and NGOs are involved in the design and launch of the program. As a special novelty, a program called "To the Town for its Birthday" was emphasized, which will be held after the formal session of the local parliament on the Municipal Day on November 21^st, when an interesting entertainment program will be organized at the Magnolia Square, where, with music and food, the representatives of Municipality will talk with the citizens and share material about the role and achieved results of the local government.

Nikcevic also announced the "Open Door Day" at the Military Naval Ship “Jadran”, which will be open for visits to all students from Tivat schools on November 16th.

"November Days" will feature numerous tournaments in chess, basketball, bowling, table tennis, sailing regattas, and athletic races, while the cultural events will include several theatrical performances, art and photographic exhibitions, concerts by the Musical Education Society "Tivat ", that is, the Montenegrin Symphony Orchestra, the promotion of books and a special homage to the recently deceased famous actress - the great friend of Tivat, Milena Dravic.

TO Tivat will organize a handicrafts and souvenir fair, in cooperation with the NGO sector, as well as a special new event dedicated to the gastronomic heritage and traditional cuisine of Boka called "Stroll of the Bumblebee".

Apart from the rest of the upcoming festivities, the Tivat Protection and Rescue Service will be officially handed over a special small fire emergency vehicle for narrow streets worth 60,000 euros, and a concert by the High Music School Tivat on November 22^nd will officially announce the new multimedia cultural space that the town received in the space of the reconstructed building DTV "Partizan", in whose reconstruction and equipment the Municipality invested almost half a million euros.

Text by Sinisa Lukovic, on November 6th, 2018, read more at Vijesti

The transformation of Tivat from a dormant seaside town, based on seafaring, shipbuilding and military, in the "elite nautical-touristic destination of the high class" for the last ten years, resulted in dramatic economic and demographic changes, but it did not give the expected results in improving the standards of the domicile population.

This, among other things, can be concluded from the analytical part of the Tivat Strategic Development Plan for 2019-2022, which will soon be found in front of the councilors in the parliament. According to the latest 2011 Census, Tivat had 14,031 inhabitants, with an average age of 38 years. In the last decade, the town recorded a continuous increase in the number of inhabitants who were 12,812 in 2000, five years later 13,404, and reaching 14,744 people last year. The natural increase in Tivat is 6.7 percent, which is drastically higher than the Montenegrin average of 1.9 percent.

"The data show a steady increase, as well as a higher percentage of population growth than at the state level. The population growth is due to the positive natural increase and positive migration trends of the population within Montenegro," the Strategic Plan says, with the note that Tivat has 4,862 households and two times as many condos - 9,675.

The smallest municipality in Boka since the closure of the military shipyard Arsenal, the eviction of military assets with which Tivat has been living with as a base for more than 120 years, according to the local and state DPS officials, has been transformed into the "Montenegrin Monte Carlo" thanks to the development of yachting and elite tourist complexes Porto Montenegro and Lustica Bay.

Construction is continuously ongoing PHOTO: Siniša Luković

However, these projects are basically primarily real estate because they are dominantly reduced to the construction of apartments, villas and business premises for sale or rent, while the construction of new classical hotel capacities is considerably smaller in the development of these complexes, especially in the case of Porto Montenegro. This luxurious complex, built on the site of the former Arsenal, "pulled the trigger" to a new development trend in Tivat, which with the construction of apartments under the mask of "development of tourist villas and condo hotels" becomes an overbuilt “elite Budva”. At the same time, the population is more and more "convicted on a cloth and a broom", that is, relatively poorly paid and hard jobs in the service industry for rich clients of elite complexes, or wealthy people who can afford expensive houses built on the unexpected coast or its green hinterland.

The development and arrangement of the town are at the same time concentrated mainly on the center and the closest contact zone of the elite Porto Montenegro, while the surrounding, and especially peripheral settlements, are literally neglected, and some of them today look like a Brazilian favela.

Center of the town PHOTO: Siniša Luković

"Arsenal's privatization in 2006 also caused significant economic and demographic changes in our municipality. This, among other things, led to a faster development of the specific town’s center, while at the same time we can freely say there is slower, or not so rapid, development of peripheral areas. Also, significant disruption to the whole coastal region is also reflected in the discharges of the population from the northern region to the primal coastal region. As a result of this, we have, inter alia, coastal areas that take urban features and become areas of concentration of population with a predominantly tourist function," said the Strategic Plan. On several occasions, the document mentions the growing migration of the population from the north and the arrival of an increasing number of people to Tivat in search of a better life. The economic branch that is experiencing the boom in Tivat, as well as on the whole coast, is the construction of apartments in the last decade. From 2003 to 2011, the number of apartments increased by as much as 2,549 (from 7,167 to 9,626). Of the newly built apartments, 1,382 are empty and uninhabited, and only 509 apartments are officially seasonally used. This shows that the criticisms of those who at the beginning of the Porto Montenegro project warned that this could be turned into raising "settlements with closed blinds" - were justified. And in the middle of summer, most of the apartments in Porto Montenegro, Lustica Bay, and similar complexes are with closed window blinds and in the dark, testifying that they are rarely used.

Porto Montenegro PHOTO: Siniša Luković

Around these complexes, there are more and more newly built residential buildings with striking inscriptions - "For sale" and contact info of the sellers - investors. In spite of this, the construction boom does not stop and, according to the current data of the Urban Planning Department in Tivat, more than 80 construction sites are now active. The authors of the Strategic Plan say that from 2012 to 2017 in Tivat, the number of available permanent jobs has increased by about 1,000, given the very pronounced seasonal fluctuations in the number of jobs available only during the summer. 

"In addition to the fact that the season lasts for three months and does not represent a long-term source of income for employees, the most frequent jobs in the field of tourism and catering, construction and trade do not provide high incomes. Also, the workforce from the neighboring countries (Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina) is most often engaged in the above mentioned jobs. Economic growth and employment from 2012-2017 had a limited impact on the number of unemployed... In the mentioned period, oscillations in the number of unemployed at the end of the year were recorded. The smallest number of unemployed persons were recorded in 2015 (740 unemployed), after which in the next two years there was an increase in the number of unemployed persons," the Strategic Plan reads.

That the new concept of economic development of Tivat does not give the expected economic effects on the domicile population, shows that at the Bureau of work in 2014 there were 807 citizens of Tivat, and last year only slightly less - 784. The unemployment rate is constantly one of the highest on the coast and it is moving between 13 and 14 percent.

"In the period up to 2014, the number of employees has grown steadily, so that in the coming years there will be a reduced number of employment. These movements are caused by the mere reduction of the absorption power of the market, that is, employment opportunities."

It is noted that in some economic areas, such as tourism and trade, there is the possibility of additional employment, but that "conditions offered are not accepted by the local workers".

Apart from the fact that it does not represent a long-term source of income for employees, these jobs do not usually provide high revenues. In order to create better jobs, it is necessary to devise measures for the development of a sector that provides employment throughout the year and measures for the development of year-round tourism that would require the engagement of the workforce out of season."

Three times higher incomes per capita than the average in Montenegro 

The authors of the Strategic Plan praised the achievement, claiming that "the permanent improvement of the business environment contributed to the Municipality of Tivat attracting large investors who started the realization of investments such as Porto Montenegro, Lustica Bay, and Blue Horizons.

Luštica PHOTO: Siniša Luković

"The launch of these investments, especially the opening of Porto Montenegro in 2009 as one of the largest marinas in Europe, has contributed to increasing the attractiveness of the Municipality of Tivat and Montenegro as a whole as investment and tourist destinations. The investment boom in the Tivat Municipality is one of the most important drivers of socio-economic development. Investments in Tivat and real sector growth have contributed to improving the fiscal sustainability of the municipality in the last five years. Viewed per capita, current budget revenues increased by a third, so from 540 euros in 2009 they increased to around 730 euros in 2014, which is three times more than the average in all the municipalities in Montenegro in 2014, which are amounted to 260 euros per capita, according to the data by the Government of Montenegro.

There are no big companies, service activities are in boost

Tivta's economy, meanwhile, has lost all of its former large companies, such as Arsenal, and today it consists of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises with the dominant share of the two least categories of as many as 99.25 percent of all economic entities. The number of active enterprises rose from 715 in 2012 to 1,166 in 2016, but more than three-quarters of them deal only with the tertiary, i.e. service activities (trade, accommodation and food services, real estate brokerage, agency activities).

The number of four star category hotels has been increased, the number of the lowest categories has been reduced - two stars, and four new five-star hotels have been opened with a total of 380 beds. Tourist traffic, measured by the number of guests and realized overnight stays, increased more than doubled in the period 2014-18.

Text by Sinisa Lukovic, on November 4th, 2018, read more at Vijesti

October 22, 2018 - Even after seven days of persistent repetition of whether and when they would resign, Tivat’s President Siniša Kusovac (DPS) and Ivan Novosel (DPS), the president of the local parliament, did not reply to "Vijesti" about whether they would decide on this moral act for their publicly recognized and proven illegal and malpractice activities with the town’s property.

October 19, 2018 - The full-day event "Luštica Bay Fall Colors Fair" will be held on Saturday, October 27th at several locations on the promenade in the Marina resort, with the participation of agricultural producers, students of primary schools "Branko Brinić" from Radovići and "Drago Milović" from Tivat, and the high school "Mladost", Tivat. Part of the program will be performed by the Kadena Cultural and Art Center from Radovići.

October 15, 2018 - If the accumulating material goods and grasping for the same at the cost of a brutal offense of the law, is the measure for patriotism, then the President of the Municipality of Tivat, Siniša Kusovac, is definitely one of the largest patriots in Tivat and Montenegro, said Tivat’s Action (TA).

Septembre 13, 2018 - The Tivat World Festival 2018 begins tomorrow with the performance of the best known Montenegrin musician, Rambo Amadeus.