 |
|
Come see the pyramids ... in Bosnia?
Still recovering from civil war, the European nation lures tourists with skiing, 'siege tours,' and land formations of dubious heritage.
from the March 29, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
"For a long time after the war we had humanitarian workers and consultants, but now it's mostly tourists," says Valida Vilic, who runs the Halvat Guesthouse in the oldest part of Sarajevo, called Bascarsija, whose Ottoman-era mosques, squares, and market hall are popular with visitors. "Unfortunately, they don't stay long: usually just a day or two."
Bosnia's leaders hope that tourism will bring jobs to this war-ravaged country, where the official unemployment rate exceeds 40 percent. An advertising campaign on CNN International urges viewers to "Enjoy Bosnia and Herzegovina," while glossy new brochures from the national tourist board invite people to visit the historic towns and untrammeled nature in the "Heart Shaped Land."
"Tourism can be the key to transforming Bosnia and Herzegovina," the senior international official here, High Representative Christian Schwarz-Schilling, wrote in a Sarajevo newspaper editorial recently. But he warned that a great deal needed to be done before the country will "evolve into the tourist paradise portrayed in the CNN advertisements."
Central strategy for tourists is lacking
As with most things in Bosnia, there is no national strategy for tourism, but rather 11 of them: one for Republika Srpska and one for each of the Croat-Bosniak Feder-ation's 10 cantons. There is little trust among the country's Serb, Croat, and Bosniak (or "Bosnian Muslim") politicians, complicating efforts to create a national strategy for tourism promotion, planning, and infrastructure improvements.
"There is no tourism strategy, and nobody communicates with anybody else," says Tim Clancy, a cofounder of Green Visions, a Sarajevo-based nonprofit that promotes and provides sustainable tourism programs. "This is not a masstourism destination like Croatia, so we need to focus on quality, not quantity. We need to protect and attract people to this natural wonderland."
Bosnia also has an image problem, as it is still widely associated with ethnic cleansing, atrocities against civilians, and the siege of Sarajevo. While Sarajevo and other cities have been largely repaired and rebuilt, war-damaged buildings are still a common sight, as are red skull-and-crossbones signs warning of the presence of mine fields.
RSS feed
