Emil Kukalj on balanced tourism, overtourism, ideology, pragmatism, and possibility

Emil Kukalj reck­ons ideo­logy is only use­ful if it is action­able and leads to net pos­it­ive results.

Saverio F Ber­to­lu­cci inter­viewed Mr Kukalj for a Tourism’s Hori­zon Inter­view. For this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Mr Ber­to­lu­cci reflects. [The full tran­script is on Substack.]

Who is Emil Kukalj?

I was delighted to dis­cuss research and devel­op­ment with an estab­lished fig­ure in the Balkan tour­ism industry: Emil Kukalj. I found the inter­view to be fas­cin­at­ing. This “GT” Insight rep­res­ents what I per­son­ally took away from it.

Mr Emil Kukalj has spent most of his pro­fes­sion­al career at home in Montenegro, rep­res­ent­ing the des­tin­a­tion in loc­al, nation­al, and European travel coun­cils, and con­trib­ut­ing to tourism’s flour­ish­ment there.

Mr Kukalj’s cur­rent role as R&D and Innov­a­tion Dir­ect­or at Montenegro Tour­ist Ser­vice DMC entails over­see­ing the devel­op­ment and imple­ment­a­tion of new and exist­ing pro­jects, pro­grams, and ini­ti­at­ives that aim to enhance the com­pet­it­ive­ness and sus­tain­ab­il­ity of the tour­ism sec­tor in Montenegro and beyond.

Con­tents ^

Balancing income, infrastructure, communities, and nature

Montenegro is an emer­ging and rap­idly-evolving tour­ism des­tin­a­tion. Its Adri­at­ic coast­line and cul­tur­al ties with east­ern Europe draw arrivals from Rus­sia, Belarus and Ukraine — the best three mar­kets for the coun­try in terms of rev­en­ue — as well as Italy, France, Great Bri­tain, and Scandinavia.

Montenegro shows the typ­ic­al traits of an emer­ging des­tin­a­tion: Mainly sea­son­al and coastal tour­ism with products and ser­vices con­sumed by a rel­at­ively young, well-off, loy­al, and highly sat­is­fied pop­u­la­tion between 30 and 49 years of age.

Accord­ing to Emil Kukalj, the most import­ant find­ing in Montenegro’s Stra­tegic Mas­ter Plan related to address­ing the issue of unbal­anced tour­ism development:

“[T]he dis­par­ity in tour­ism devel­op­ment across regions [led to] a ded­ic­ated sup­port strategy aimed to bol­ster under­developed areas in Montenegro.

“Tar­geted inter­ven­tions, includ­ing infra­struc­ture upgrades, pro­mo­tion­al cam­paigns, and com­munity-based tour­ism ini­ti­at­ives, sought to unlock the untapped poten­tial of these regions.

“By fos­ter­ing inclus­ive growth and lever­aging loc­al resources, Montenegro endeav­oured to cre­ate a more bal­anced and resi­li­ent tour­ism ecosystem.”

Mr Kukalj’s research over the past dec­ade is help­ing loc­al and nation­al poli­cy­makers choose which mar­ket seg­ments to attract. Montenegro is work­ing on man­aging its inflows with a clear aim to attract well-off cli­ents from all over the world.

While ‘lux­ury’ might not be at the fore­front of many appar­ently lib­er­al move­ments, Montenegro’s strategy of boost­ing the lux­ury sec­tor, invest­ing in infra­struc­ture, and pro­tect­ing nat­ur­al land­scapes is pro­jec­ted to achieve sus­tain­able outcomes.

This com­bin­a­tion of lux­ury and nature may be the per­fect hab­it­at for the high­er world classes and, more import­antly, may gen­er­ate the best return on invest­ment and capa­city man­age­ment; if well-managed.

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Evolution, overtourism, and adaptability

Evol­u­tion in the travel, tour­ism, and hos­pit­al­ity sec­tors inev­it­ably entails change; change that poli­cy­makers, imple­menters, loc­al gov­ern­ments, and com­munit­ies must adapt to.

Emil Kukalj likes to emphas­ise the pos­it­ives of tour­ism booms:

“The surge in inter­na­tion­al arrivals sig­ni­fies increased eco­nom­ic oppor­tun­it­ies, cul­tur­al exchange, and glob­al con­nectiv­ity. It fuels eco­nom­ic growth, job cre­ation, and infra­struc­ture devel­op­ment in the Balkans. The influx of tour­ists brings rev­en­ue streams, stim­u­lates loc­al busi­nesses, and fosters cul­tur­al under­stand­ing among diverse communities.”

At the same time, Mr Kukalj knows that there are risks that have to be taken ser­i­ously, such as tour­is­m’s mis­man­age­ment and eco­nom­ic over­de­pend­ence as seen in parts of neigh­bour­ing Croa­tia. Tour­ism can indeed lead to envir­on­ment­al degrad­a­tion and put strains on loc­al resources and infra­struc­ture, with neg­at­ive short-term effects on loc­als and their life­style; long-term effects, if not dealt with appropriately.

Mr Kukalj emphas­ises the need to closely look at policy devel­op­ment, man­age­ment, and imple­ment­a­tion rather than speak of ‘over­tour­ism’ as if it’s all of tourism’s fault.

Emil Kukalj:

“Since the term ‘over­tour­ism’ was inven­ted, as a rep­res­ent­at­ive of the industry, I inter­pret it as a call for nuanced under­stand­ing and action. While it under­scores the neg­at­ive impacts on des­tin­a­tions and com­munit­ies, it also prompts us to recog­nise oppor­tun­it­ies for pos­it­ive change. By embra­cing sus­tain­able prac­tices and inclus­ive approaches, we can mit­ig­ate the adverse effects of over­tour­ism while fos­ter­ing equit­able tour­ism development.”

Con­tents ^

Micro pragmatism vs macro ideology

Emil Kukalj’s par­ti­cip­a­tion in world fairs, events, and organ­isa­tions is surely key in his under­stand­ing of the dif­fer­ences between the loc­al, nation­al, and even glob­al in terms of des­tin­a­tion management.

He appre­ci­ates the more care­ful and dir­ect approaches of self-reli­ant small enter­prises as com­pared to the more ideo­lo­gic­al con­sid­er­a­tions of lar­ger organ­isa­tions. The lat­ter can often count on gov­ern­ment fund­ing and stra­tegic part­ner­ships with key ‘stake­hold­er’ groups to roll out their cent­ral­ised top-down initiatives.

Mr Kukalj stresses the import­ance of prag­mat­ic, loc­al­ity-spe­cif­ic uses of tourism’s resources to real­ise more bal­anced prosper­ity, such as in cities:

“Cit­ies with high levels of tour­ism may gen­er­ate sub­stan­tial rev­en­ue from vis­it­or spend­ing, accom­mod­a­tion taxes, or oth­er tour­ism-related fees. Some of this rev­en­ue may be rein­ves­ted into loc­al tour­ism ini­ti­at­ives, includ­ing mar­ket­ing cam­paigns, infra­struc­ture devel­op­ment, and vis­it­or ser­vices, thereby bol­ster­ing the budget of city tour­ist boards.

“City tour­ist boards may [in turn] estab­lish stra­tegic part­ner­ships with loc­al busi­nesses, cul­tur­al insti­tu­tions, and com­munity organ­isa­tions to secure addi­tion­al fund­ing and resources for tour­ism pro­mo­tion and devel­op­ment. These part­ner­ships can enhance the capa­city of micro organ­isa­tions to imple­ment impact­ful tour­ism initiatives.”

Just as not all loc­al­it­ies in a des­tin­a­tion are the same, neither are all cit­ies the same. Each has its own set of circumstances.

“In highly com­pet­it­ive tour­ism mar­kets, cit­ies may invest heav­ily in des­tin­a­tion mar­ket­ing and vis­it­or ser­vices to attract tour­ists and dif­fer­en­ti­ate them­selves from rival des­tin­a­tions. This could trans­late into lar­ger budgets and resources for city tour­ist boards com­pared to their nation­al counterparts.”

Over­all, Mr Kukalj thinks that loc­al col­lab­or­a­tion between micro and macro organ­isa­tions is essen­tial for effect­ive and sus­tain­able tour­ism devel­op­ment, mar­ket­ing, and management.

Con­tents ^

Be awake to possibility

Emil Kukalj’s final remarks should be passed down through the generations!

When I asked about the cur­rent ‘woke’ ideas per­petu­ated in many aca­dem­ic envir­on­ments, Mr Kukalj again dif­fer­en­ti­ates between well-inten­tioned ideo­logy and more use­ful prag­mat­ism. His thoughts go to the val­ues of true pro­fes­sion­al­ism: Ambi­tion tempered by a sense of respons­ib­il­ity, and suc­cess-ori­ent­a­tion centred in prac­tic­al action.

Mr Kukalj’s state­ments are a call-to-action. (His own ambi­tion is what made him one of the best tour­ism man­agers in the world.) He invites tal­ents to diver­si­fy, dis­cov­er their skills, listen to ment­ors, test their lim­its, and foster mean­ing­ful con­nec­tions in order to thrive. 

The R&D spe­cial­ist points to tech­no­logy, sus­tain­ab­il­ity, and exper­i­en­tial ana­lys­is as cut­ting-edge spheres of study that should be on the radars of young people enter­ing the industry:

“Innov­at­ive and func­tion­al ideas in the hos­pit­al­ity and travel seg­ments embody con­sumer-cent­ri­city, tech­no­lo­gic­al integ­ra­tion, sus­tain­ab­il­ity, authen­t­ic exper­i­ences, col­lab­or­a­tion, and adaptability.

“By embra­cing these game-chan­ging char­ac­ter­ist­ics, busi­nesses can drive growth, dif­fer­en­ti­ate them­selves in the mar­ket, and deliv­er excep­tion­al value to trav­el­lers in a rap­idly evolving industry landscape.”

Now it’s your turn: Make a change, be prag­mat­ic, and embrace the chal­lenge of our ever-chan­ging world!

Con­tents ^

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Con­tents ^

About the author

Saverio Francesco Ber­to­lu­cci stud­ied inter­na­tion­al tour­ism & leis­ure at Uni­versità di Bologna, Italy and sus­tain­able tour­ism devel­op­ment at Aal­borg Uni­ver­sity, Den­mark.

Cur­rently work­ing as a com­mer­cial assist­ant with VDB Lux­ury Prop­er­ties in Bar­celona, Spain, the quad­ri­lin­gual Itali­an is inter­ested in des­tin­a­tion man­age­ment, the exper­i­ence eco­nomy, and cus­tom­er care, and has a pas­sion for social sus­tain­ab­il­ity, remote tour­ism, and co-creation.

Con­tents ^

About the Tourism’s Horizon Interviews

“Good Tour­ism” Insight Part­ner Tourism’s Hori­zon: Travel for the Mil­lions, in col­lab­or­a­tion with “GT”, has sought the can­did views of well-known and respec­ted experts on tourism’s past, present, and future. 

The Tourism’s Hori­zon Inter­views involves Jim Butcher, Vil­helmi­ina Vain­ikka, Peter Smith, Saverio Francesco Ber­to­lu­cci, Dav­id Jar­ratt, and Sudip­ta Sarkar as inter­view­ers. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog will pub­lish their high­lights and com­ment­ary as “GT” Insights. 

Read the full tran­scripts of each inter­view on Tourism’s Horizon’s substack.

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