Spring Brings Tourism Hopes To Bosnia

Tourists in Mostar's old town. Tourism numbers in Bosnia in March were up nearly 45 percent compared to the same time last year, when the coronavirus pandemic was first devastating tourism and travel around the world. 

Tourists from Serbia pose next to an Ottoman-era wooden fountain in Bosnia's capital, Sarajevo. 

Potter Kenan Hindic, whose store is in Sarajevo's old town, says sales of his creations through Instagram "saved his job" during the pandemic. 

Hindic speaks with visitors to his store. The craftsman says there was a small influx of tourists from Serbia during the May Day holidays. "I swear to God we felt it, the whole of the old city came to life. It wasn't a large number of people, maybe 150 to 200, but that meant a lot to us."

Serbia's Slobodan Camagic stopped in Sarajevo for one hour. He and a group of friends had just visited Kosovo, Albania, and Montenegro as part of what they called a "corona Balkanic tour." "There are still restrictions for tourists here," Camagic says. "Since we're entering from Montenegro, we have to leave Bosnia within 12 hours."

Tara Tower, next to Mostar's famous Old Bridge. The headquarters of the city's famous bridge divers can be seen in the bottom right of the picture. 

Igor Kazic, one of the Mostar bridge divers who made their living jumping the 25-or-so-meters into the Neretva River for tourists and locals, says he believes crowds will return to the iconic bridge. 
"During these holidays on May 1 and 2, there were a few more people, there were a few jumps," Kazic says, "This morning, there was a group from Poland. More and more people will come."

Arslan Mesihovic, who runs the Craft Beer Garden in Mostar, says the situation is "definitely improving." The beer enthusiast was forced to focus more on the domestic market during the pandemic, which gave his business "the strength to continue."
"We hope that those foreign guests will return, then we will see how it all turns out," he says. 

 

The Museum of the Sarajevo Assassination, at the site of the 1914 shooting of Archduke Franz Ferdinand that precipitated World War I. The museum was once a major draw for tourists. 

 

In his souvenir shop in the center of Sarajevo, Adnan Ljubovic is waiting for tourists. 
"A year ago, practically everything died down," he says. "[P]reviously there had been an upward trend in the number of tourists from distant parts of the world. Recently, there has been a noticeable trend of tourists from our region, especially from Serbia, and to a lesser extent from Croatia and Slovenia."