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Ulcinj News
A Timeless Place with a name from each millenia - Ulcinj, Ulqin, Ulqini, Dulcigno
Ulcinj's Summer 2008 Season
Led by Major Resorts
By Nikola Nikolaidis, for TravelUlcinj.com
September 18, 2008 ULCINJ - Ulcinj's 2008 summer season was slow by recent standards, with occupancies in private accomodations substantially lower than last year.
But efforts by major resorts such as the Hotel Mediteran, provided a bright spot and perhaps a view of the future for this balmy Adriatic coastal resort town.
"It's been rather long since we had such a low number of tourists in our town," says 67 years old Selim whose house on Pinjesh, a hill that rises above Ulcinj's Small Beach, is half empty. "Currently, I only have 10 tourists in my villa - the entire upper floor is empty. For days I am doing everything to attract tourists, but to no avail. I don't know what is going on, but, from what I can see, the season is not good at all."
Wherever we move, we find pretty much the same scene: citizens of Ulcinj are complaining that this summer they won't earn enough to live on until next season. Fearing they will not be able to pay mortgage for the houses built exclusively for tourists who were coming to visit this coastal town, citizens of Ulcinj are working hard to find new guests.
Ulcinj is a small tourist town with beautiful nature that is still untouched by the industrial pollution. Town was lucky enough to avoid the process of industrialization so there is not a single "dirty" industrial complex on territory of Ulcinj. Endless sand beaches, hidden bays treasuring rocky shores, olive orchards where trees are whispering stories about Turk pashas who planted vegetation to escape their sadness, lakes crammed with fish, Ada island that came into existence after shipwreck in the delta of Bojana river - these are magical pearls that Mother Nature bestowed upon the south eastern part of Montenegro.
On the other hand, preserved nature means that vast majority of population make their living from tourism: they are renting rooms, selling souvenirs and laboring in restaurants and cafes where relaxation starved tourists are coming to find their peace and rest. When the tourist season is good, citizens, workers and hotel executives can gross in sufficient amount of money and start making plans for the next season.
Data we gathered perfectly explains the problems that characterize current tourist season. During the main tourist season, Ulcinj hosts approximately 60,000 tourists, and during the season's peak, the number of tourists climbs upwards of 80,000 overnight visitors. Despite the optimistic rhetoric and pre-season calculations, main season, thus far, does not satisfy the needs and projections of tourist industry executives.
According to the information from Ulcinj Business Association, during the last week of July, Ulcinj had 20,000 tourists and total influx of funds in town's restaurants, stores and cafes was perhaps 40% lower than average. There is a whole range of reasons to worry about tourist season, so even the mayor, Mr. Gezim Hajdinaga, decided to put his own effort and start inviting tourists to come to this wonderful town. The idea of his trip to Kosovo, according to the sources from Municipality of Ulcinj, was to alleviate the effects of the damage that was caused by such a slow start of season.
Hotels on Velika Plaza, Old Town and downtown Ulcinj have significant number of empty rooms, in many parts of town restaurant patios are half empty. "The town is dead during the night. You can find customers only until 1 or 2 AM. After that, the streets are becoming deserted so it makes no sense for me to work during that period," says Skendo, taxi driver employed in Lux Taxi, corporation that operates in Podgorica, Bijelo Polje and Ulcinj.
Still, there are bright spots in tourism of Ulcinj and Hotel Mediteran Resort is one. The resort hotel has arranged business very efficiently so all capacities are filled from mid May until mid October and guests are coming all the way from Poland and Baltic countries.
For the last few months, there is not a single vacancy in beautiful villas simply because everything is reserved until the end of September and after that, hotel's management will finally be able to accommodate wishes to those visitors who would like to stay in Hotel Mediteran.
These appealing news motivated us to talk to Managing Director of Hotel Mediteran, Mr. Isa Becovic who was happy to share with readers of TravelUlcinj.com the secrets on how to accomplish these impressive results. We conducted our conversation on one of marvelous terraces in Hotel Mediteran, sitting in the deep shade and drinking martinis.
As always, Mr. Becovic was in good spirits, ready to provide us with insightful answers. "Our success this year is a result of hard work and good planning. In order to attract guests for this season, we started working and making arrangements last fall. Offering good service, affordable prices and preparing everything in advance, that is the best way to attract tourists," says Mr. Becovic and adds that Hotel Mediteran Resort is already planning activities for next tourist season. "We hope to attract more tourists from Western and from Eastern Europe because we already have good communication with tour operators from Central Europe."
We asked Mr. Becovic to elaborate on what are, in his opinion, strengths and weaknesses of tourism in Ulcinj. The answers he provided us with might illuminate what should be done to improve tourism in Ulcinj and Montenegro. "I think that entertainment in Ulcinj is tailored in such a way as to satisfy only one, specific, target group of tourists and that presents a huge problem for us as well as for guests who would like to see more diversified entertainment in Ulcinj. In addition, Ulcinj still has to improve its organizational and informative sections as we often receive complaints that Ulcinj does not have enough information centers nor street signs that would make orientation easier. On the other hand, every day guests are expressing their satisfaction with service in our hotel as well as with natural beauty of Ulcinj. I am certain that following years will be very exciting and Ulcinj will develop into a very important tourist center in Montenegro and Southern Europe. There are numerous signs that big investors are coming to build new hotels, improve infrastructure and offer undeniably good service to guests who will, I am sure, come back to Ulcinj, again and again. It might take few years, but it will certainly happen," Mr. Becovic concluded, while orange sun was slowly immersing itself into warm, calm, blue water of Adriatic sea.
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There is nothing quite like a vacation on the Ulcinj-Bar South Coast, where the heart of Montenegro's Wild Beauty waits for you. Come visit Velika Plaza - our long beach, Ada Bojana, Lake Skadar, our four ancient cities, our simply unsurpassed water and hillside recreation possibilities, and a land and people that still retains its unique 2,000 year-old character.
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