The Montenegrin Congress Bureau within the National Tourism Organization (NTO) presented Montenegro’s tourist offer at the IBTM World fair, which started in Barcelona on Tuesday.
During the fair, which lasts until tomorrow, representatives of the Montenegrin Congress Bureau NTO held numerous presentations where the offer of the destination was presented, as well as dozens of meetings with decision makers in the MICE industry from the markets of Central and Western Europe, as well as the Far East.
The associate director of La Franco European Image, Laurence Lacroix-Khémis, said that Montenegro is an interesting market for the French market when we talk about MICE tourism.
“You have excellent capacities, and you can organize large events, with an excellent price-quality ratio.” Beautiful landscapes and nature, and currently the good thing is that you are a relatively new destination in this segment of tourism, and you also have that surprise factor. You have excellent hotels, a good climate and, most importantly, you are determined to develop in the segment of business travel, and are good hosts for our tourists”, said Khémis.
The regional manager of M&I Forum, Charo Mérida, said that she is extremely satisfied with Montenegro’s offer, and that it is successfully positioning itself as a MICE destination.
“Next year we will organize an M&I event in Porto Montenegro and we are very excited because we haven’t had an event like this for a long time. We want to create something for a market that specializes in the MICE tourism segment. Among numerous countries, we chose Montenegro because we think it is the ideal place for this type of event. We can’t wait to come to you and collaborate”, said Mérida.
At the fair again this year, during the three days of events, lectures by world-renowned MICE professionals are organized, who presented new trends in this field.
The representative of NTO, Andri Stanović, said that this type of tourism is extremely important for the further development of our destination.
“Trips from this area are realized in the off-season, which can significantly affect the reduction of seasonality, and according to conducted international research, a guest on a business trip generates four to six times more income for the destination than a tourist on vacation, and tourists after business trips can to get more interested in the destination and to come in a private arrangement,” said Stanović.
He also referred to the trends in the MICE segment for the coming year, i.e. the return of live meetings, the increasingly significant sustainability of the destination for MICE event organizers, but also the creation of an environment that is oriented towards diversity, equality and inclusion in the social sense. Another trend is that consumption on these trips will increase, but also that investments will be higher due to the increase in prices at the global level.
Director of finance and co-founder of the Gold Travel agency, Edin Hajdarpašić, said that the fair in Barcelona was very well attended, which makes us especially happy as a tourism industry, because we know how important the MICE segment is for Montenegro because we have a lot to offer.
“I am sure that we will all be able to make good contacts in order to promote Montenegro in the best possible light and that we will have multiple benefits after this fair”, announced Hajdarpašić.
The economy is extremely satisfied with this year’s fair, and the Karisma hotel group said that they expect these meetings to result in successful cooperation in the future.
“We have been participating in this fair for years and we are very satisfied with the meetings held.” Everyone was well prepared and familiar with our destination, so we expect benefits from this fair”, said the manager of the Karisma hotel group, Đorđe Pejović.
At the stand of the Montenegrin Congress Bureau NTO, the offer was presented by the local tourist organizations of Kotor, Budva and Bar, the hotel group Montenegro Stars, hotels Lazure Hotel & Marina, Azul Beach Resort Montenegro by Karisma, Blue Kotor Bay Premium Spa Resort, The Chedi Luštica Bay, resort Portonovi , as well as the travel agencies Gold Travel, Explorer DMC, Montenegro in Style, Luminalis and Montenegro Tourist Service DMC, local media writes.
