Zabljak Municipality

Žabljak proves that altitude and UNESCO designation, properly leveraged, beat coastal overdevelopment. This municipality of 2,941 residents at 1,450 meters—the highest urban settlement in the Balkans—became Montenegro's most visited destination in 2025 by doing what Budva and Kotor failed to do: manage growth. July 2025 recorded 46,000 overnight stays, up 16% year-over-year, while maintaining the ecotourism emphasis and infrastructure quality that UNESCO World Heritage status (granted 1980) was meant to preserve. Žabljak captured the mountain tourism niche that neighboring Mojkovac and Šavnik never monetized despite sharing access to the same natural assets. The difference is infrastructure investment, brand recognition, and 22 peaks over 2,200 meters that provide skiing, hiking, and the Tara Canyon—Europe's deepest at 1,300 meters cutting through Durmitor National Park's 39,000 hectares.

The municipality functions as gateway to Durmitor, declared National Park in 1952 and centerpiece of Montenegrin mountain tourism since Yugoslav planners recognized that not every region can produce aluminum. While Podgorica built smelters and Nikšić mined bauxite, Žabljak built hotels, ski lifts, and the service infrastructure that converts natural beauty into employment. Savin Kuk ski resort—6 kilometers from town center, rising to 2,313 meters with 750 meters vertical drop—makes Montenegro's second-largest winter sports facility after Kolašin. But unlike Kolašin's bet on massive expansion (224 kilometers of planned trails), Žabljak scaled to capacity: enough lifts to handle demand without overwhelming the mountain, enough hotels to house tourists without blanketing the landscape in concrete.

The 2025 tourism data reveals sustainable success: 150,000+ overnight stays in eight months means the municipality of 2,941 processed over 50 times its permanent population in temporary visitors without collapsing under the load. Kotor hosts similar visitor-to-resident ratios but experiences infrastructure failure, UNESCO warnings, and sewage dumping into the bay. Žabljak maintains the UNESCO World Heritage designation as marketing advantage rather than liability because it built carrying capacity before arrival rather than chasing growth until breakdown. The town that thrives at 1,450 meters—where winter temperatures drop to -10°C and summer highs reach only 20°C—demonstrates that extreme environments attract premium tourists willing to pay for experiences unavailable at sea level.

By 2026, Žabljak faces climate vulnerability rather than overcrowding. Rising temperatures threaten ski season reliability: the same warming that makes coastal summers unbearable pushes the snow line higher up mountains, potentially above Savin Kuk's 2,313-meter summit. If warming trends continue, Montenegro's mountain tourism shifts from year-round diversification (winter skiing, summer hiking) to summer-only hiking, halving the revenue season. But that risk remains years away. In 2025, Žabljak achieved what Budva, Kotor, and Tivat are destroying: growth that enriches rather than consumes its foundation.