As part of the NEST project, the Ministry of Economic Development and Tourism of Montenegro successfully organized a Stakeholder Workshop and Press Tour gathering more than 40 entrepreneurs from the tourism sector - business professionals, hoteliers, agencies, tour operators, providers of various types of tourism services and decision-makers from across the country - with the aim of diversifying the offer and bringing together tourism MSMEs (micro, small and medium size entreprises) and suppliers from the catering and tourism industry, facilitate networking and raise awareness of inclusive tourism routes.
During the business workshop, attendees were presented with a Catalogue of 13 sustainable experiential routes previusly developed thanks to the Capacity Building Program implemented during the NEST project, ended in 2020. The Catalogue connects a diverse spectrum of tourism experiences - bringing together the sectors of travel, accommodation, sports and recreation, sights, local crafts, and gastronomy.
Sustainable tourism routes are an innovative product that defines new models of tourism experience allowing visitors to experience and understand the cultural heritage, local crafts, and culinary traditions of the place, thus supporting the economy of the destination.
As an important result of the Workshop, cooperation between tourism operators and service providers from the craft, tourism and hospitality sectors was achieved.
Montenegrin tourism operators expressed great interest in incorporating the presented routes or their segments into their official tourism offer. The routes popularize two thematic contexts - Cultural Heritage and Gastronomic offer and Sports and Nature offer, and are adapted to cater for diverse tourist profiles, especially youth and silver tourism. These routes will diversify the offer and strengthen the sustainability of the tourism businesses, also contributing to the stronger promotion of local producers - emphasizing authenticity, quality, and a strong local ethos.
The representative of the National Tourism Organization (NTO) welcomed the effects and results of the event announcing additional institutional support to tourism operators in terms of benefiting their offers and promotion.
Ivana Zečević, Head of the Directorate for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises with the Ministry, expressed her satisfaction at the realization of the project activities - elaborating on the expected support of the Program for Improving the Competitiveness of the Ministry of Economic Development and Tourism of Montenegro for 2023.
"This program foresees additional incentives, investments in basic equipment, digital transformation of companies and support for the transition from a linear to a circular economy model. The program also envisages support for beginners in business along with economic empowerment programs for young people and women in business" said Zečević.
Business Workshop was followed by a Press Tour - organized along the Cultural heritage and Gastronomy experiential routes leading from Villa Galeb - an important historical monument, through the Stone Walls of the Old Town Herceg Novi, to the Museum of Living History in Prčanj, then strolling along the Old Town of Kotor Walls and finishing with an amazing cruising experience
through the Bay to a hidden stone village of Žlijebi – unique in Montenegro in terms of its stone architecture. Tourism entrepreneurs exploited the sights and characteristics of the area, engaging with the local community, and tasting local foods and delicacies.
Micro, small and medium-sized tourism enterprises, and entrepreneurs, directly and indirectly, depend on visitor expenditure, therefore experiential routes are an opportunity to turn many tourism potentials, along with rich history and culture, into high-quality authentic experiences.
To further support sustainable and innovative tourism, the Ministry of Economic Development and Tourism of Montenegro is set to organize B2B business meetings. These meetings will involve many locally registered households as their tourism offers could complement potential tourism routes.
The meetings will be an opportunity to exchange business programs and ideas and create new collaboration opportunities for joint promotion. The creation of a new and diverse "smart" tourism community that will contribute to the development of sustainable and smart tourism products requires knowledge and awareness of sustainability principles along with the use of innovative tools to improve destination visibility and diversify the tourism offer. In this sense, the activities of the NEST and NEST PLUS project (Networking for Smart Tourism Development), which has been implemented since 2018, focus on the rationalization of the development of new experiential routes that will foster cross-border cooperation, with the aim of improving competitiveness and building a dynamic network of support and blossoming of tourism routes between the regions of Italy (Apulia and Molise), Albania and Montenegro - through the strengthening of micro, small and medium-sized tourism enterprise and entrepreneurs.
Photo galleries of the event:
Press Tour of Cultural Heritage and Gastronomy route
