Creating Custom Made Tours and Preparing Stakeholders to Serve International Visitors
Adventure tourism is still a nascent activity in northern Montenegro. Without a professional tourism agency-NGO team such as Montenegro Adventures (MA) and the Centre for Sustainable Tourism Initiatives (CSTI) – supported by CHF International’s CRDA-E program – many interested tourists would have a difficult time exploring the unique attractions of the north. On the other side, the region’s many tourism stakeholders would lose out on both paying customers and valuable capacity building offered by these organizations.
During the summer of 2007, Laura and Gaspard, a young Swiss couple, contacted Montenegro Adventures to inquire about traveling to northern Montenegro. MA responded by developing a custom-made tour which incorporated linkages to 14 tourism service providers in the north. MA then worked with these stakeholders to prepare for the trip and later conveyed to them valuable feedback provided by the guests, including some criticisms. Overall, Laura and Gaspard had an overwhelmingly positive experience, which they expressed through a lengthy letter. “This was the best holidays that we have had together, and MA greatly contributed to our experience”. “We had so much fun at Katun Dolovi and I hope the Damjanovic family enjoyed having us too. We tried to remember the names of all members of the family… but there were so many of them! For us staying with them was a “total immersion” in the Serbo-Croatian language and Montenegrin culture as none of them spoke English or German, but since Gaspard and I had taught ourselves some words and sentences we were able to have a simple conversation and some laughter too.
To wake up in such beautiful and tranquil surroundings was wonderful and the food was great, only there was so much of it, for us it was not “half board” but “full board.” What they didn’t realize from their trip, was the level of effort and hands-on counsel provided by the CSTI/MA team to prepare the Damjanovic family and other service providers to host foreign guests.
The team’s ability to provide both paying customers and training to the north’s tourism entrepreneurs gives them credibility to create meaningful results in product development and service delivery.
Laura and Gaspard are just one example of how the CSTI/MA team contributes to the north’s tourism development by linking grassroots stakeholders with international tourists to build a bridge to sustained economic development for the region.
