Montenegro Hopes for More Chinese Tourists

"China has great potential and we expect more tourists and new investments from your country in the coming period," Montenegrin Tourism Minister Branimir Gvozdenovic told a meeting with a delegation of major Chinese tour operators on Sunday.

Montenegro is trying to attract visitors from other countries after recording a drastic decline in the number of Russian tourists during the 2014 summer season - a drop of more than 30 per cent, according to some estimates.

The drop came amid a worsening of political relations between the two countries after Montenegro joined EU sanctions against Moscow over Ukraine, and after the huge fall in the rouble's value reduced Russians' spending power abroad.

Montenegro is now trying to offer a more flexible visa regime for Chinese tourists and introduce direct flights to Podgorica from several Chinese cities. 

China's ambassador to Podgorica, Cui Zhiwei, who hosted the tour companies' visit, offered encouragement to the Montenegrin authorities.

"Based on everything that this delegation has seen and on the experience of other delegations that previously visited your country, I believe that a significantly larger number of tourists and investments from China will come to Montenegro in the coming period," the ambassador said. 

The tour companies' delegation arrived on Sunday for a three-day visit to chevk on the largest resorts on the coast and the ski centres in the north of the country.

It included tourism representatives from China's Sichuan Province and its three largest tour operators: Chengdu China Youth Travel Service, Sichuan China Travel Service and Panda Tourism Group. 

The government said the Sichuan province has great potential, with a market of 100 million people and millions...