May 13, 2018 - The project under the name “Common Balkan Tourism Routes” took place on the 8th of May in Sofia, the capital city of Bulgaria. At this meeting, participants discussed the importance of the joint appearance of countries in the region to the potential market and new tourists. Mister Cazim Hodzic, the director of Division for Special Forms of Tourism and Tourism Infrastructure, under the flag of the Montenegrin Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism, also took part in this event. In addition to the representative team of Montenegro, led by Mister Hodzic and the host of Bulgaria, the meeting was attended by representatives and government officials of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and Turkey. The participants discussed the idea of creating common Balkan tourist routes, the existing and available possibilities of cross-border cooperation for such routes, as well as the opportunities and ways of marketing and promotion.
The basic idea is that all countries participate in the creation and promotion of common routes to foreign markets, based primarily in Asia and North America. Keeping this in mind, and having this kind of performance at a glance, also, except for lower promotional costs, participants concluded that there would be a significant increase in the chance to attract tourists from these regions. This kind of marketing will be possible only because the idea of presentation is for the Balkan region to be presented in its entirety. The participants proposed criteria for the selection of sights, landscapes, places, and points of interest that would be suitable for routes and visits. According to this, areas that are under the protection of UNESCO are primarily chosen, and they were proposed to be unavoidable parts of the routes. Also, capital cities and recognized tourist places and landmarks made it to the proposal too.
To create a competitive tourism product, the participants of this meeting agreed that the Common Balkan Tourism Routes require continuous efforts in various aspects, but primarily in product development, marketing and financing. Also, another meeting of such is scheduled for October 2018, when the project will be raised to the national level, and it is expected that the first Common Balkan Tourism Route will be completed and presented in 2019.
