Could you give us a short overview of Budvanska Rivijera and tell us about its history and heritage?
HTP Budvanska rivijera is considered to be one of the biggest hotel enterprises in Yugoslavia, it was one of the biggest companies even in the former Yugoslavia. Montenegroturist, HTP Dubrovnik and Porec, were the three biggest hotel companies in former Yugoslavia.
Budvanska Rivijera is actually a part of Montenegroturist, and it covers a region from Budva to Petrovac. Our company has 20 hotels with the capacity of about 9000 hotel beds, as well as around 50 restaurants, 60 bars, cafés, shops. All year round, we employ over 1900 people, and in the season we employ another 1000, so all together it is around 3000. Most of our hotel capacities are in "B" category hotels, like hotel Slovenska Plaza, complex Becici and a few hotels in Petrovac. In category "A" we have hotels like Avala, hotel Maestral that is now being sold, hotel As and hotel Palace in Petrovac. Sveti Stefan and Milocer belong to the "A" category hotels as well. At present, we operate only in the domestic market. Our results from the foreign market are not significant compared to the results achieved before the war in Yugoslavia. Up to 1991, the structure of visitors in Budvanska rivijera was the following: about 40% German tourists, the next big market was the UK with 20% of the total number of tourists, Scandinavians 10%, Benelux 8%, and other countries around 16%, which means that the domestic market was only around 6%. Beginning of 1992 we lost completely the foreign market, the country was isolated, so we were oriented only to the domestic market and the situation now is upside-down - this year we will make only 11% of our income from foreigners, and 89% from domestic market. Our season is very short, business is considered only in the peak season, July and August, when we market family holidays, and unfortunately the last three seasons were very weak. Our market is economically exhausted.
Our efforts and aims are to come back as quickly as possible to the market in Western Europe, and attract foreign tour operators to include our destination in their brochure. Up until now it was almost impossible, since each year something unstable and unsafe was happening in this region, and the publicity of it was very bad in all foreign markets.
This year things will change. The situation is going to settle down and become calm. The main problem is solved - Mr. Milosevic is arrested, the relationship between Serbia and Montenegro is going to be clarified and improved and the political situation is going to get better. I have already noticed an increased interest from the western European tour operators to include our capacities into their offers for next year. We have already signed contracts with Neckermann for a capacity of 1200 beds, which is a serious contract. We are going to be presented in their main brochure. Neckermann was bought by Thomas Cook, an English tour operator, so we are going to be present in the UK market too. ITS signed a contract with us as well. From Austria, Czech Republic, Russia we will also have guests next year, so I am sure that next year is going to be the year of comeback. If we continue to cooperate with the same tour operators, I am sure that in three years time we will get beck to the same position that we used to have before the war. Without the market of Western Europe, we cannot count on tourism seriously.
Can you tell us something about the occupancy rate and how it, varies during the spring/summer holiday?
In the period before the war, the occupancy was, in pre-season about 80-85%. In high season, it was 100% and in a post season 85-90%! We had excellent occupancy rates before 1991, and we were compared with holiday destinations such as Mallorca, which was at the time the destination with the best occupancy.
Now, it is quite different - in pre-season we have between 25-35% and it varies from hotel to hotel. In A category hotels it is better: up to 50%, in post season it is the same situation: the occupancy in an A category hotel is around 60-70%, and in a B category it is less than 40%.
I understand that about 70% of Budvanska Rivijera is to be privatised, how is the privatisation process going on at the moment?
Bearing in mind all the circumstances with the political situation in Yugoslavia, it makes a strong influence on many investors. People do not like unstable destinations, so they are considering their investment intentions very carefully. We noticed the interest in the last few years, investors are looking at what we are doing, and I think we have done a good thing in Montenegro promoting good legislation regarding business privatisation in the tourism sector of Montenegro.
| Now, we are qualified to talk with the foreign investors. So far, we have serious partners like HIT from Slovenia for hotel Maestral; we are negotiating with an Austrian company regarding some financial help for hotel Sveti Stefan and Milocer. Some others are interested to buy hotel As, like a company from Russia and a there is also interest from England for the hotel Avala.
We have found also information about different foreign hotel groups that are interested in investing in Montrenegro. Can you tell us more about them?
Yes, Sheraton among others are interested, but at the moment I do not really know how close we are in the negotiations, so we should not talk too much about them. Just to emphasize that the interest is strong, people are coming, and are searching for our quality and possibility to invest - so most likely it will bring good results.
What kind of tourism are you looking forward to develop - is it more the exclusive tourism, or mass tourism?
We have a master plan for tourism that will be presented to the public tomorrow in Podgorica. It was created with help from the German government to the Montenegrian government - they invested about 1,000,000 DEM into that plan and engaged serious German experts for the team. They have also done a project on the strategy for development of tourism in Montenegro up to 2010.
The emphasis in the strategy is put on the high category hotels. They consider this the future of tourism in our destinations, and they suggest even more development in that direction. Considering our nice coastline and scenery, most probably we will follow this strategy, and try to attract people with money. The future of tourism is in the high quality, and we need to follow the actual trends. The Mediterranean nowadays considered as a general destination with a lot of devastated places, like the coast of Spain, Italian coast, and now they are looking for something new, that they can bring up to a high standard, and to sell it.
Since you are looking for the high-class tourist, what would you say is so special about Budvanska Rivijera?
The Budvanska rivijera is a small destination. Montenegro has to be considered as a destination that has a unique offer. Nice sea resorts, combined with nice mountains and rivers, with very good cultural heritage as a mix of three cultures. These reasons are enough to organize a stay for 10, 15 days and not only to bring people to the beach, but also to show them something more. That is the advantage compared to other destinations.
Sveti Stefan equals to famous people. Tell us about the famous people who visited the island, and stayed there?
From the very beginning, Sveti Stefan was recognised as an attractive place to come for a holiday. We had many rich people from Western Europe there, like members of the British and Dutch royal families, people from high society, and many statesmen as well.
There were also a lot of actors like: Sofia Loren, Monika Viti, Alberto Moravia, Richard Burton and Elisabeth Taylor, people from sports like Stenmark when he was on top of his career, tennis player Borg, the top model Claudia Schiffer, chess players Fisher and Karpov who also played a game in Sveti Stefan, and many more.
From your personal experience, what has been/is the most challenging position between the position you held previously as Minister of Tourism or as Managing Director of Budvanska Rivijera?
I prefer my current position, to stay in business; I feel more comfortable here. I am in this business for over 30 years, and I was in the government two years ago - I prefer to be in the company.
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