The platform and application, in addition to advertising the offer, enable booking accommodation, renting skis, bicycles, ATVs, and jeeps, purchasing tickets for events, and direct communication with businesses and event organizers.
More than 100 users from about 75 businesses consolidated the tourist offer of Kolašin, within the digital platform www.lokalno.me, which was created with the support of the Kingdom of Norway through the project "Norway for you - Montenegro". This new digital service intended for tourists and tourism workers was developed through the project "Digitalisation 1.0 - Full Digitalisation of Tourist Offer" which was implemented by the NGO Cluster Initiative in partnership with the Municipality of Kolašin and the local Tourist Organization.
"Among the registered businesses are two medium-sized hotels, 10 apartments, three travel agencies, one chalet, and one guesthouse, as well as many organizers of various events, bicycle and ski publishers, and others. In addition, we are very pleased that the platform, as a new way of promotion and sales, attracted more than ten agricultural producers from Kolašin. Based on existing data, we estimate that in less than six months of active operation of the platform, over 30% of the tourist offer of the city has been consolidated and that the application registers between 500 and 750 unique visits to the site and the application during the season", says Balša Cvetković from the NGO Cluster Initiative.
As part of the project, a website, and Android and iOS applications for smartphones were created in order to provide user-friendly environment. The platform and application, in addition to advertising the offer, enable booking accommodation, renting skis, bicycles, ATVs, and jeeps, purchasing tickets for events, and direct communication with businesses and event organizers.
All these services are possible without a commission, which saves time and money for providers of tourist services and their customers and clients. In addition to unifying the tourist offer, as a general objective, the activities within the project contributed to an increase in the income of the application's users by 5%, as well as a reduction in the use of printed material in facilities by 53.4%.
This project is one of five that was approved for support of a total of 193,000 euros, through a public call for support to small businesses implemented by the "Norway for you - Montenegro" project. Their activities are aimed at increasing the competitiveness of at least 70 small businesses in Montenegro through their transformation.