Ski resorts do not need luxury hotels, they should be built in the city, not on the mountain. In Austria, everything is connected by cable cars, so it is not a problem for the guest to come from the hotel to the ski resort, says prof. Dr. Rade Ratković, Dean of the Faculty of Business and Tourism from Budva.
He points out that the investment boom that is happening in Kolašin and the large number of condo hotels that are being built as part of the economic citizenship project is not part of the sustainable development strategy. He believes that it is best for the north to invest in villages and agriculture, i.e. in the production of healthy food, as well as the construction of a network of cable cars.
– Hotels should not be built, villages should be renovated, camps, katuns… The state should help the production of healthy food. Guests like to visit rural households and work on the farm. That is interesting to them. They built big condo hotels on the ski resort, and there is nothing you need there but a ski resort. It should remain clean, possibly there should be places, prefab facilities, where people will drink, eat, leave their equipment – explains Dr. Ratković.
He believes that we should protect the mountains and that it is not a good strategy to build condo hotels and residential buildings.
– We don’t achieve anything with that. It is known all over the world how ski resorts are built and what the accompanying capacities are. In Austria and Switzerland there are primary villages that are connected by cable car networks. The hotels are at the foot and guests have no problem going to the ski resorts because there is a cable car network that connects all the places. And in every village there is a cable car, and then it is not a problem to live there all year round. It is a rare case that there are residential buildings or hotels made of solid construction on ski resorts – says Ratković, noting that a network of cable cars would be an excellent solution for us, as it would also solve the problem of parking and traffic congestion.
– It will be difficult to stop this construction and all this is not part of the sustainable development strategy if we want sustainable development at all. We need villages to be dual, and nature to be untouched. Ski resorts must also not have artificial snow, because that also destroys nature. Where there is artificial snow, grass no longer grows there – emphasizes Ratković.
Luxury and infrastructure
Luxury hotels in Kolašin, which are built as part of the economic citizenship program, require high-level infrastructural equipment.
Kolašin does not have a wastewater treatment plant and a complete sewage network, but neither does it have a regular water supply. Additional parking space is yet to be resolved, and bus stations and markets have not even been arranged in the announcement. At the same time, ten hotels are under construction in that city and its surroundings, seven of which are part of the economic citizenship program. Works on several residential and commercial buildings are nearing completion. The town’s infrastructural unpreparedness for the ongoing “investment boom” is evident at every step.
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