Montenegro

UNDP-supported initiative “Northern Challenge” wins gold

Mojkovac, 5 October 2010

Representatives of the Tourism Organization of the Montenegrin Mojkovac Municipality have returned from the Novi Sad Fair with a certificate and a gold medal. The award was granted for the quality of facilities and services during a sports & tourism event titled “Northern Challenge” that the City of Mojkovac, with UNDP Montenegro’s technical support, has successfully organized three years in a row with an aim to valorize tourism potential of the municipality through adventure sports.

“This award is a good indication that our Tourism Organization, although the youngest in Montenegro, has succeeded in conceiving and organizing an event which has aroused public interest in tourism in the region and beyond,” Mr. Dejan Medojević, Director of TO told reporters upon his return from the Novi Sad Fair.

Explaining the contents of this year’s “Northern Challenge”, Mr. Medojević said that on the first day, thirty competitors from Montenegro and the region competed in the triathlon which involved kayaking trip down the river Tara, hiking across the mountain Sinjavina and biking down the mountain to Mojkovac.

“On the second day, twenty avid fishermen competed in the ‘fly fishing’ discipline (catch and return fish). After the award ceremony for fishermen we organized a party for all participants on the Tara riverbank,” Medojević said. He also stressed that that event - unique in Montenegro - was organized according to seven “leave no trace” environmental principles.

“With this two-day regional sports & tourism event we affirmed our offering to the passionate fishermen - and other tourists who stay in high season at the coast - to spend a weekend in our municipality and enjoy its natural beauty, primarily of the river Tara, then Sinjavina mountain and its Zabojsko lake. That was also our chance to show how much attention we are paying to the protection of the environment, which will undoubtedly be complemented with the completion of the remediation of former mine tailings zone which will become a quality tourism and sports area,” - said Medojević. He explained that the event was organized in cooperation with the UNDP and municipality, and that this year co-organizers were the International and Montenegrin Olympic Committees and the Game Set Peace Program.