18 August 2019 - This year’s summer season in Žabljak started with low temperatures, which greatly affected tourists arrivals, said Vanja Krgović Šarović, director of the Tourist Organization Žabljak Tourism Organization, as Cafe del Montenegro reported.
"Many bookings were cancelled at the beginning of the season, but the situation got better in July, while we had a record-breaking number of tourists last week. If we take into account the hotels and private accommodation, the occupancy rate in Žabljak now is around 85 per cent, and we are optimistic about September as well and hope to make up for missed sunny days at the beginning of summer," said Krgović Šarović.
She also added that in the Tourist Organization Žabljak they are especially glad to say that shadow economy has decreased and that they recorded an increase in the collection of a city tax, which is best confirmed by the fact that 41 per cent more money poured into the state budget compared to last year.
Data from the Tourism Organization of Žabljak showed this town had 2,470 visitors in June last year, while this year in June Žabljak welcomed 3,515 visitors. As for July 2018, it had around 5,000 visitors, and in July this year, the number of people taking holidays in Žabljak was 7,400. In the first half of August 2018, Žabljak received 3,214 tourists and in the same period this year, it hosted 4,260 visitors.
Whatever one might think about these figures, the fact is that one can see a significant decline in the size of the shadow economy, i.e., Žabljak has an increase in the number of tourists visiting this town compared to last year.
Krgović Šarović also stressed there were more international visits to Žabljak this year, mostly from the Western Balkans countries.
"The majority of visitors were from Germany and France. Of course, we do have domestic visitors, but they rarely check-in. In September we expect the majority of visitors from the Western Balkans countries," concluded Krgović Šarović.
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