Despite its often frigid political relations with Moscow, Montenegro hopes to attract more Russian tourists to the country this year.
Montenegro’s tourism business is gearing up for the summer, expecting more Russian tourists than in previous years.
On Thursday, the tourism authorities presented the country’s offer at the largest Moscow travel and tourism fair, MITT, saying that, “trends show that more Russian tourists are interesting to visit Montenegro.”
“Russian tourists are known for late booking, but also for the fact that in recent years more and more of them come individually. Guests from Russia visit Montenegro mostly during the summer months,” the National Tourism Organization said in a statement.
It noted that, compared to ten years ago, the number of the Russian tourist in Montenegro had doubled by 2017.
While the coastal town of Budva, dubbed “Moscow on the sea” has a large number of Russian tourist each year, Russian tourism agencies are interested also in other Montenegrin resorts, such as Kotor, Herceg Novi and Bar.
The head of the Herceg Novi’s tourism organization, Pavle Obradovic, said on Thursday several Russian tour operators who exhibited at the Moscow fair were interested in the town’s offer.
To back up the business, the national air carrier, Montenegro airlines, also announced more flight to Moscow and St Petersburg, starting from March 25.
In addition to the regular flights of Russian airlines during the year, additional flights to Montenegro have been announced during the summer season.
Montenegro’s once close relations with Russia have cooled markedly since Podgorica joined Western sanctions against Moscow in 2014 over the crisis in Ukraine and since it joined NATO.
Relations become even tenser last October when Montenegro said Russians stood behind an alleged coup attempt, aimed at overthrowing the pro-Western government and assassinating the then Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic.
Russia has called the accusations absurd and unfounded, with some media outlets in Moscow ridiculing Podgorica’s claims that its intelligence and security agencies only narrowly stymied a Russian plot.
But, according to the latest data from Montenegro’s Statistics Office, obtained by BIRN, Russians are still coming to Montenegro and make up the majority of foreign tourists.
Visitors from Russia accounted for 26.7 per cent of all overnight stays last year in Montenegro, followed by nationals from Serbia, Bosnia and Ukraine.
Russian also spend the most, 104 euros per day per person on average, according to the National Tourism Organization’s data.
The Moscow Travel and Tourism Fair also noted in January that Montenegro saw an 8 per cent increase in Russian tourists over the first nine months of 2017.
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