Last year’s tourist season in Neum was a record, and Neum’s hoteliers expect that this year’s could be even better.
– We expect that the season will be extremely good, even partially better than last year, since the announcements for the pre-season are really very good and that trend continues for the peak season and the sub-season itself. We hope that all these announcements will be realized and we think that we can hope for another excellent season, we are very optimistic – said Davor Krešić, sales director of the “Sunce” hotel, in an interview with Fena.
According to hoteliers’ announcements, some of the smaller hotels will open their doors on March 15, and by April 15 all Neum hotels should “be in operation”.
Compared to last year, prices for accommodation in Neum hotels remained the same or saw a slight increase of three to five percent.
– No one has raised prices excessively, although it is a rather thankless story for us hoteliers because we signed contracts with large European tour operators last year at this time, and within a year, all sorts of things have happened, both in terms of inflation and labor, and the increase in the costs of all inputs, such as groceries, electricity, and the like. We have already set prices for next year, and we simply cannot know what will happen in the next 12 months – Krešić emphasized.
Foreign guests
More than 85 percent of guests in Neum hotels are foreign guests. They mainly come from Germany, Slovenia, Poland, the Benelux countries and Scandinavian countries.
Guests from the Far East have also slowly started to return to Neum, but their number of overnight stays has not yet reached the pre-pandemic years.
– We expect them to return every year, but it is going quite slowly. I must say that this winter there were not many of these guests from distant Asian markets, so I am afraid that we will have to wait a few years for the numbers we had in 2018 and 2019 to return. There are these guests, it is a fact, but they are far from the numbers before the corona. However, we have compensated for these numbers with standard emitting markets in Western Europe, so it can be said that we have “made up” for the loss of these guests – Krešić points out.
Due to the increase in prices on the Adriatic, especially in neighboring countries, Neum has become even more interesting to foreign tourists in recent years, who use the only Bosnian city on the sea as their base from which to visit other tourist destinations in the region.
– Neum has an extremely good geographical position. In our surroundings are Dubrovnik, Korčula, Mostar, Međugorje, the Vjetrenica cave and numerous other attractive destinations. Neum has excellent accommodation capacities and excellent hotels, and due to lower accommodation prices we have become interesting to guests, especially in the pre- and post-season. In the very peak of the season, the reason for coming is, of course, summer tourism – said Krešić.
Manpower problem
When talking about tourism, the inevitable topic of recent years is certainly the lack of labor force.
– This is a problem we face every year. Everyone copes the way they know how. Someone manages to find workers on the domestic market, someone employs workers from Nepal, the Philippines, India, someone from neighboring countries such as Serbia and Macedonia. Prompted by experiences from past years, we started looking for workers already at the end of the last tourist season, so we can say that the hotels “equipped themselves” quite well because we took this problem seriously – explained Krešić.
In neighboring Montenegro and Croatia, there are more and more foreign workers from distant countries, while in Neum their number is still low.
– Maybe this season there will be 30-40 workers from those distant countries in Neum, which is very small considering the total number of workers employed by hotels. The “backbone” of the workforce is made up of older workers, since these people do a great job and I always say that they are much better than these young workers coming in. We will face that problem in a year or two when these people retire and we have to start thinking about it now. I am of the opinion that the state should do something about it, because obtaining a work permit and visa for these workers is such a painstaking job that many hoteliers simply give up halfway – warned Krešić.
He also commented on the FBiH Government’s decision to raise the minimum wage, noting that this decision did not affect non-Neumu hotels.
– At the “Sunce” hotel, this decision had literally nothing to do with the reason that there were no workers with a salary lower than 1,400 – 1,500 marks – concluded the sales director of the “Sunce” hotel, Davor Krešić.
