This year, despite good announcements in the spring, was quite bad for rural tourism and it only started on July 15th, said Gordana Stevović, a member of the Management Board of the Association of Rural Households, adding that they have little support from state institutions.
This year, as she pointed out, the weather had a little effect, as well as the high prices of food and travel.
“We see that our average guest stayed in his country. Also, a good number of households did not complete all the administrative procedures, annual registration, categorization, fiscalization, so they withdrew from the business,” Stevović said.
She pointed out that rural tourism in Montenegro has great potential and perspective, but that it is accompanied by various problems.
“Our offer is special and unique because our guests can find something that they don’t have in their countries. In general, the trend is that rural households have more and more visits, but they also constantly improve their services, so a large number of households in Europe have invested in more luxurious facilities, swimming pools, spas and the like. This is not the case with us, but that’s why our guests have an authentic experience, a good part of our households are engaged in tourism in katuns, and we can be competitive with an authentic offer, which there are not many of in Europe”, said Stevović.
Unfortunately, as she added, the main problem is digitization and lack of promotion.
“When it comes to digitization, we understand that in the 21st century it is necessary to be computer literate in order to be able to market your offer. Most of our households are not only galloping for modern technology, but a lot of them don’t even have internet, so when you need to market an offer, it is necessary to communicate with the guest in the virtual world, which is a big obstacle for them”, said Stevović.
As an association, they tried to summarize all the households on the website www.ruralholiday.me and to open this page as a direct communication channel with the hosts, and also with some of the colleagues who are a support in case of difficult communication.
“This site is currently our only form of promotion. We sincerely hoped that, after covid and the great interest in rural areas on a global level, our state institutions would do more, but that did not happen”, said Stevović.
She believes that they need more support from the state, and for now they only have administrative support.
“That support is related to the registration processes themselves and the like. However, we feel that we need much more support. I will give an example of the fiscalization that was introduced two years ago and which was applied to rural households as if they were apartments on the sea, except for the previously mentioned lack of digital skills, our households need less time to milk cows, buy hay, issue accommodation and issue a digital invoice. It is complex and unnecessary considering that examples from the environment lead to much easier and more practical tax policies that are applied to the reality of life in the countryside”, said Stevović.
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