Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2
By Azad Hasanli – Trend:
Baku is certainly one of the capitals which deserves the attention of Montenegro’s tourism industry, says Montenegrin Prime Minister Dusko Markovic.
“Over the last several years, we have witnessed a dynamic growth of the number of destinations with which we are connected by air traffic, and especially in the period of the peak tourism season,” Markovic said in an exclusive interview with Trend.
“However, activities are being continuously taken to encourage all forms of cooperation which may result in the introduction of new flights, whether regular, charter or low-cost airline flights,” he added.
“The current visa regime represents an important advantage for tourists arriving from the market of Azerbaijan,” Markovic said. “According to this regime, citizens of Azerbaijan may enter, pass through the territory and stay in Montenegro up to 90 days with a valid travel document without a visa.”
As for the possibility of launching the Baku-Podgorica flight, Markovic said that for Montenegro, as a tourism destination devoted to generating further growth in the number of arrivals and overnights, every airline is important, because that opens up room for better cooperation between tourism industries of the two countries, and ultimately leads to an increase in the number of tourist arrivals, overnights and revenues.
“As a result of tourism policy, today we have a series of distinctive tourism projects, value of which is measured in billions of euros,” he said.
“The implementation of those tourism projects will contribute to the achievement of Montenegro's strategic goal - the development of high quality tourism,” Markovic said. “The projects that have already been implemented, such as the Aman Resort Sveti Stefan, Hilton Hotel in Podgorica and Porto Montegro in Tivat are good examples.”
“Undoubtedly, the project of Porto Novi implemented by investors from Azerbaijan in Montenegro will have the same effect,” he said. “This resort, which includes the construction of the hotel complex, luxury SPA villas, SPA center, hospitality and commercial amenities, as well as the construction of the convention center and marina, will significantly improve the Montenegrin tourism offer.”
“Opening of the first One & Only hotel in Europe, which will operate in Porto Novi, is planned for 2018 when the first phase of the entire project is planned to be complete, while circa 650 million euros will be invested in the project,” he said. “According to the investor, this is an amount that significantly exceeds the agreed figure.”
Porto Novi resort complex is one of the largest projects in Montenegro. The project is being implemented by Azmont Investments, owned by Azerbaijan Global Investments (its shareholders are PASHA Development, AtaHolding and Synergy Group).
Nova Banka Podgorica, formerly Azmont Bank, was founded by Azerbaijani investors to finance the project.