Visit-Montenegro.com : This Spectacle Will Mark an Era in the Development of Montenegro

Budva – “In our opinion, this spectacle will mark a whole new era in the development of Montenegro as prestigious tourist destination. At last, Budva has become an expert in the organization of such mega-events.

National Tourist Organization and the government are actively involved in this project, appreciating all of its’ aspects which are significant for further improvement of Montenegro’s development. In order to be prestigious, a destination must have a capacity to host world stars and this is the field where one must not allow any compromises and one must host the greatest of all stars.

We have a great challenge ahead of us – to ensure the continuity and to make sure that we have among our guests not only the biggest stars of show-business and the most important representatives of jet-set, but also to greet the most important figures from all areas of arts and culture.

Budva deserves this and Montenegro stands as an inspiring ambience. We feel that we are on the right track to keep this continuity”, Sasa Radovic, Director of the National Tourist Organization said at a press conference which took place at Budva’s “Avala” hotel yesterday.

Crowds of journalists from foreign and domestic media, which “occupied” the press hall have than been addressed by Jelena Radjenovic, Director of Budva’s Tourist Organization and Maksa Catovic, owner of “Komuna” company, which has been in charge of the production of this event, as well as concert’s spokesperson, Aleksandar Rados.

Radovic stated that, apart from its’ significance in the improvement of Montenegro’s image, this event also had “very concrete”, economic effects:

“During all these months, prestigious world travel magazines have been writing about Montenegro, all television channels across the globe broadcast videos about Montenegro, all answering the puzzling question – how come that Madonna had her concert in Budva, of all places, in Montenegro, which was not such an important player up until recently?

Budva’s accommodating capacities were not sufficient to host all of the people who have come. We have information that all hotels in Tivat and Podgorica have also been packed. We expect some 80 to 90,000 overnight stays. It is, then clear, what the financial benefits are, adding to that out-of-hotel spending and revenues from plane tickets”, he added.

Jelena Radjenovic emphasized once more that Jaz concert has been announced with one of the biggest promotional campaign which has ever taken place in the region.

“During the two months’ of its’ duration, total of 55,000 adds has been broadcast at almost all televisions in the region, while the announcements have been present in almost all media.

Press conferences, organized selling of tickets, billboards, promotional adds which have been broadcast in all of the seven states, resulted with the fact that Budva’s capacity would be in full use, like they were during the height of the tourist season.

Budva which is, first and foremost, known for its’ natural beauties, most luxurious accommodation and best restaurants in the region, is now becoming known also as the town which provides excellent entertainment.

With all this, we are hardly surprised with the fact that we were the hosts of this spectacle. We made sure that this concert was not the only event which marked our offer, as this entire week had been packed with numerous other events, which made sure that our guests had even more interesting stay with us”, Radjenovic stated.

According to the announcements, this event has received attention of record-high number of reporters.

“We have received over 860 requests from various media, but Madonna’s management cleared accreditation for just 16 of these. This was the highest number of accredited media during her entire tour”, Rados stated, adding that the other’s have received accreditations from the Montenegrin organizers which included somewhat smaller rights for journalists.

Catovic concluded that the task of the production team had been fully met and that everything was ready for Madonna’s concert at Jaz at 2 pm yesterday, sharp.

He added that if all tickets were sold, income from this event would come up to two million Euros and that all obligations to the state would be fully met.

Madonna Leaves from Zeta for Budva

Queen of Pop arrived at Podgorica’s airport yesterday at 3:35 PM.

Despite our best efforts and the contract signed by “Vijesti” with Montenegrin organizers of this concert, which gave us the right to take exclusive shots of Madonna’s arrival and departure from the airport, journalists did not succeed in taking any photo of the diva.

Madonna landed at the distant Army’s part of the runway. Immediately after arrival, she was flown to Becici’s hotel “Splendid” with a helicopter.

Putting aside members of the police who secured this part of the airport and made sure that no journalist would come closer than 100 meters to it, one could not even assume that something special took place at the airport at that point.

Without any special attention, Madonna flew in the direction of Becici.

Journalists were forced to leave the airport after receiving threats that they would be taken into custody.

Queen of Pop Crossed Over

Company “Mirax”, which was the general sponsor of this concert, organized two parties, which have been announced as pre and after Madonna parties.

Madonna’s name has been, retroactively, crossed over with spray at posters which advertised these events all around Budva.

According to our information, organizers of Jaz event protested over the fact that this concert has been used for the purpose of promoting a private party, which resulted with an unplanned “redesign” of promotional posters.

“There has been no dispute with concert’s sponsor, company ‘Mirax’”, Radjenovic, after being ask to clarify this mini-affair.

Celebrities at Concert

Indeed, Budva seems like it was really height of the tourist season yesterday.

Visitors, who were, in most cases, foreigners, asked around about accommodation, bought souvenirs inspired by Madonna, including T-shirts and beach towels, and walked around the capital of Montenegrin tourism.

Russian tourists were in a majority, but also those whom citizens of Budva immediately marked as members of gay-population.

Presence of many celebrities confirmed that they were not willing to miss Madonna’s concert. List of those spotted includes Dragan Bjelogrlic, Mima Karadzic, Dino Radja, Goca Trzan, Aleksandra Radovic, Igor Vukojević and more.

(26 September 2008)

By: I.N.L. and J.O.