Luxu ry Mari n E Ta L k

Hadag sat down for an exclusive chat with Danilo Kalezic, Senior PR & Marketing manager of Porto Montenegro, a full service marina located in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Bay of Kotor, offering berths, luxury residences and more.

Hi Danilo! We read about the charity work that Porto Montenegro is involved with. Tell us more about that…

We’re really strong with charity. We believe that whatever comes from the community, needs to go back to the community and our main investor, Mr Mank, when he arrived in Montenegro –he’s very well known in Toronto as one of the main charity players in Canada – he put a policy together to really give back to the community. We’re building in a town called Tivat, in Boka Bay, the deepest fjord in that part of Europe. And, we gave more than €2.5 million to the community –we’re rebuilding schools, rebuilding playgrounds and so on.

Basically, in that part of Montenegro there used to be a military school which was shut down in the 90s, and nothing much was happening in Tivat.

Now, of course, everything is super developed – we have amazing UNESCO sites, great nature and we’re building, not just our project Montenegro, we’re building the surroundings and making sure that everything is in line with the character and requirements of the place. By that I mean, for example, we’re building very low to keep in style with the Venetian influence, so we’re not destroying and disturbing the beautiful mountains around us. Porto Montenegro are known for their low-storey, five-floor high and eco-friendly buildings.

A lot of local stone, local wood and a lot of natural colours – Montenegro was under the Italian empire from the 14th to 18th century, so you can still find amazing influences of the Venetian era, and we want to build something a bit more inspired. Not super modern, something in between modern and practical, and inspired by the chic of Venice.

What sort of environmentally-friendly projects or initiatives does Porto Montenegro pursue?

We have just won the award of super yacht marina of distinction 2017, given by the British Harbour Association. It’s an international award and the reason I’m mentioning it is because we have been reviewed three times in the last two years to check if our eco standards are up to five golden anchors.

Five golden anchors in the marina industry is the same as five stars in the hotel industry. That means, not only is our service very high-quality, we’re known in our marina with 450 berths, to give individual attention to each client. Not only that, we’re also preserving Boka Bay – we’re almost at the very end of building a very deep fjord and the sea there is very much like a lake. It’s got a lot of protected area, there are high mountains around it and it’s very pretty. You can see a lot of greenery around it!

Now, we’re doing a eco project with Seabins, so the marina will have bins put inside the water that are automatically collecting rubbish. And a couple of other very interesting projects – because bear in mind, we were an abolished factory 20 years ago – a lot of bad things were happening there, not very eco-oriented. So when we arrived, we really wanted to bring fish back to the sea, we really want to be super eco-friendly and that’s what we’re doing now, and on the side creating a nice destination.

”تخي ربوس“ براوق بحأ

،ايتاورك نم سانلا يتأي .تقولا رورم عم رثكأف رثكأ ة ّ يلخا دلا ةطيرخلا نيمدختسم ،نانويلا ىلإ نوبهذيو نلآاو ”نوريث فوأ مياغ“ لسلسم ريوصت دعب ةصاخيف ةديدجلا هتخسن يف ”دوه نبور“ ريوصت اًضيأ متيس ةقيقد

On a personal note, what types of boats peak your interest?

I really like super yachts and I believe they’re coming more and more to our waters – thanks to the fact that we’re recognised as cruising grounds. People are coming from Croatia and going to Greece, so they’re using the inner map – and especially after Game of Thrones being filmed there and now the new Robin Hood will be shot in Dubrovnik – an amazing city, only a 40-minute drive from us. Nevertheless, when it comes to boats, personally, I like older boats, the ones that have been refurbished to look amazing. I like the big sailing arcs with a lot of wood and a very rustic look. There’s a particular boat I really like, the former name was Queen of Andaman, and it’s now called Riana; a very interesting boat, 65 meteres long I believe, so 180ft almost. It has amazing features inside but still there remains this spirit of the former times. I like that mixture of the nice, homey atmosphere and the super yacht luxury. in terms of tourism, where can visitors stay during their trip to Porto Montenegro?

We have under us the Hotel Regent Porto Montenegro – a Taiwanese franchise. We have 11 Regents so far, most of them in the Far East, and the only two in Europe are in Berlin and Porto Montenegro. In terms of other places, I believe the hotel revolution started in 2006 when we got back our independence. That’s when the Aman Sveti Stefan opened – it’s on one of the most beautiful peninsulas of the island, and it’s very popular. Aman junkies are adoring it. Then came the Regent, a few years later the Hilton in our capital Podgorica, now the One & Only is opening just across from us. So a lot of amazing things within the last few years when it comes to luxury, because, really, Montenegro wasn’t known as a luxury destination 10 years ago. I believe that the marina really helped to expose Montenegro, we were one of the ice breakers. Now, we have at least seven or eight strong, internationally-recognised hotels, bearing in mind that we are only a small country of less than 700,000 citizens – significantly less than a million.

When did GCC travellers first discover Porto Montenegro and what sort of feedback have you received from Gulf visitors?

I believe that it all started about two years ago. We’re very much recognised as a European destination, attracting a lot of UK people, lots of German and Swiss visitors too, plus Serbia and Croatia. Then, out of nowhere, we got some interesting clients from Australia and the US, and then at some point in 2014 we received a couple of very interesting enquiries from the GCC. One thing led to another and we were acquired by ICD, a bit of lobbying happened and now FlyDubai, starting from June will be operating direct flights to Tivat, which is five minutes drive from our marina and village. Most Gulf citizens – UAE, Qatar and Kuwait – plus anyone who has an active Schengen, UK, or US visa can enter Montenegro without any visa restrictions.

Give us a snapshot of life in Montenegro and the future plans for Porto Montenegro as a destination… Well, myself I’m from Montenegro. I studied abroad and when I got back home and really saw the great difference and change in plans for Montenegro from mass tourism into really nice luxury, highend, super yacht tourism. We’ve started to become a great wedding destination in the last couple of years, and for honeymoons, conferences, and other activities. We have one of the deepest canyons in the world after the Grand Canyon in Arizona which is a fantastic place to visit. Within only three hours drive from the coast, you can be in the mountains and actually in April you can go skiing and then later you can go to the sea and swim. Everything is very natural, so we do not have artificial fruit and food – everything is planted there. The food is amazing, the prices are quite affordable and you’re really getting value for money. We have amazing eco villages in the north of the country, which are great for people who are a bit tired of the city buzz and would just like to get away for two weeks to be at a nature retreat with lots of good food and activities like hiking, mountain biking etcetera. www.portomontenegro.com

If you’re into yachts then there’s Boka Bay – it’s UNESCO protected with lots of amazing scenery and lots of history. You can spend the day sailing and really enjoy the surroundings. So, we’re really about the destination – we want to show that Montenegro is really open and that we’re really into bringing people from this part of the world there. In the summer it goes up to 35 degrees Celsius which is perfect for swimming but not super hot, and in the winter it only goes down to 10 degrees Celsius so it’s just nice and cool, not freezing. When it comes to the future of Porto Montenegro, I believe we are going in the right direction. We are opening a new development in June and a second phase at the end of next year. We can accommodate the biggest boat in the world and if it ever happens that we are visited by a boat 250 meters long, we’ll be able to accommodate it in Boka Bay. So, lots of things happening with us in Porto Montenegro.