As Europe prepares for a frigid winter with strict control over the use of natural gas, its citizens have already started booking hotels in Turkey to spend the cold months there. They were popularly called ‘energy’ tourists. This is precisely why Montenegro took part in the London fair last week promoting the ‘Long Stay Montenegro’ campaign, because in some countries the energy bills will go up by 200%, Sanja Markovic, the Secretary of the Tourism and Hospitality Association’s Board of the Montenegrin Chamber of Commerce, told Pobjeda daily.
As she explained, ‘energy’ tourists are the new category of passengers in the light of the current energy crisis. “They wish to spend the winter in attractive tourist destinations thus aiming to reduce the costs of living, including cuts in energy consumption in their home countries. Those tourists are interested in staying abroad for a longer period of time, particularly during winter and summer pre-season”, it’s said in a statement.
In this regard, the Tourism and Hospitality Association’s Board initiated a meeting on 18 October, aiming to launch a campaign, that is, promote Montenegro as the assessable and competitive country in terms of prices, so that guests from Western and Central Europe may stay longer and enjoy our sun and hospitality.
Our tourism industry, Ms Markovic adds, has entered the period of a significantly lower business activity and arrivals so we need to make the additional effort in order to attract as many tourists as possible during the post-season, especially tourists from Western and Central Europe.
Promotion and offers
“We gave the merged offer to the National Tourism Organization, which created the visualization solution for it. The promotion plan has been determined and is going to be presented via all communication channels of relevant bodies and the industry. The working title of the campaign is ‘Long Stay Montenegro”, she said.
At the last fair in London, she pointed out, there was a great interest of the British media and tour operators in our country, and they were particularly attracted by the novelties in the offer, local media reports.
