Montenegro, a country smaller than Connecticut located along the Adriatic Sea, once had a booming tourism industry that suffered from association with Serbia’s civil war.
Now the newest independent country in the world, Montenegro is trying to attract a new kind of tourist, one concerned with culture and environment.
Kotor, a coastal city that has been designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as a World Heritage Site, is home to the University of Montenegro where professor Andriela Vitic heads the hotel management department.
Montenegro is the only self-declared ecological state in the world. Vitic said one of her motivations for visiting the University of Oregon is to find out what an ecological state really looks like.
“I’m impressed how the basic inhabitants of Eugene or Oregon work to promote this state as an ecological state,” Vitic said. “Even kids know about shampoos that don’t damage the environment.”
Much of Montenegro’s tourism industry is centered along the coastal region, but Vitic and visiting UO professor Greg Ringer have been collaborating on ways to further incorporate the country’s terrain in attracting tourists.
Ringer said he and Vitic are working on a book right now that deals with the issue of cross-border tourism as it relates to the history of this area.
“To understand the story of the Balkans, Montenegro must be a part,” Ringer said. “That history doesn’t stop at the borders.”
Vitic and Ringer believe Montenegro can rebuild itself through tourism. The CIA World Factbook reports Montenegro has an unemployment rate of 27 percent and a population of just under 685,000.
“Montenegro did have a well-established tourism industry prior to the civil war,” Ringer said. “There was no conflict there but Montenegro suffered the embargo against Serbia.”
Vitic said she believes Montenegro will never be involved in conflict, despite being surrounded by nations associated with war.
“The Balkans in the last decade have been enrolled in wars and it has been very hard to change that image, especially when it comes to tourism,” Vitic said.
Ringer went to Montenegro last year as a Fulbright visiting professor and was hosted by Vitic before Montenegro claimed independence in June 2006. He describes the country as having much potential to attract “eco-tourists.”
“They want to travel knowing they are directly benefiting the destination,” he said.
Because of the sanctions imposed on Serbia, Montenegro uses organic agricultural practices, Ringer said.
“It’s beyond the landscape, it’s the practices,” he said.
Vitic wants to promote ecological responsibility on the part of both Montenegrins and tourists visiting the area.
It is Ringer’s hope that the University will send students to Montenegro next year for four weeks. George Washington University, where Vitic was a Fulbright Scholar, sent students last year. Ringer said he would like to see students spend two weeks in Vitic’s classroom, then another couple weeks enjoying all Montenegro has to offer in outdoor activities.
In September, Ringer plans to take part in a preservation project in Montenegro.
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