Madera: Flying across the Tara River canyon

The Tara river canyon in Durmitor National Park in northern Montenegro is a place of unique natural beauty. With its waterfalls, caves, cascades, viewpoints over the gorge, fauna and flora, this UNESCO World Heritage Site attracts an increasing number of tourists every summer who engage in a wide range of activities from trekking to rafting and, for the more adventurous, zip-lines.

Zip-lines are an alternative to the usual leisurely tourist activities. They consist of a pulley suspended on a strong cable mounted on a slope or incline, allowing the user to travel at speed from the top to the bottom of the inclined cable. Madera, a small family business in the Tara region active in the tourism sector, has recently installed a zip-line across the Tara gorge.

Madera is active in a number of areas. Founded in 2014 by Danka Šljivančanin, the company provides rafting services, travel agent services and accommodation alongside running a convenience store near the Đurđevića Tara Bridge. In 2016, however, the company decided to diversify their offer in order to attract the more adventurous tourist, who can now cross the Tara canyon on their newly-installed zip-line.

This was made possible through a loan secured from Crnogorska Komercijalna Banka (CKB), granted with the help of an EU guarantee. With the help of the loan, Madera were able to purchase and install the zip-line cable, creating two new job positions during the summer season.

At over 1km in length, the Extreme Zip-line Tara offers an adrenaline-filled experience at speeds that can reach 100km/h over the canyon’s crevice, complete with breath-taking views. Well, that is if the adrenaline rush hasn’t taken your breath away already…

With the number of tourists increasing continuously and a renovation of the bridge planned for late 2017, Danka expects business to grow further in the coming years. For this reason, the company is planning to boost its accommodation capacity, taking the quality of their services to a higher level and creating even more jobs.

Company: Madera MD (Montenegro)

Type of business: Entertainment services

EIF financing: COSME LGF

Financial intermediary: CKB - Crnogorska Komercijalna Banka

For further information about EIF intermediaries in Montenegro, please refer to: http://www.eif.org/what_we_do/where/me