By Vesna Peric Zimonjic
BELGRADE, Aug 18 2004 (IPS)

Countries across the Balkans are boosting tourism to build recovery from communism or the wars that broke former Yugoslavia.

“We have succeeded in crossing the threshold of 600,000 tourists, with some 620,000 registered visitors on the Adriatic coast last week,” Croatian tourism secretary Zdenko Micic told media representatives this week. “This summer season could beat the record of 2003.”

Last year Croatia saw the tourist revival it had sought for years after it gained independence after a bloody war 1991-95. Croatian tourism revenues were estimated at 7 billion dollars. This year officials believe they could reach 8.5 billion dollars. “This shows that our recovery can go in the right direction,” Micic said.

For years after 1991, the beautiful Adriatic coast and islands around Croatia that had been a hot spot for European tourists for decades, were no longer an attraction. Ferries crossing the Adriatic from Italy were empty. Tourists from neighbouring Bosnia or Serbia could no longer come. Wars, isolation and the accompanying impoverishment to pre-World War II levels made holidays unthinkable.

But with peace holding in the area for years now, and with all the politicians who led Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia into the wars gone from the scene, tourism is now seen as an important tool for the economic recovery.

Tourism is being revived also in former Eastern European communist countries Bulgaria and Romania which are expected to join the European Union (EU) by 2007.

This business is now becoming attractive both to foreign and domestic investors. Major foreign companies are building apartments or luxurious hotels along the Bulgarian or Romanian Black Sea coast.

Nebasar town or the Zlatni Pjasci (Golden Sand) area in Bulgaria, or Constanza and Mamaya in Romania now look like huge construction sites.

“All the hotels at the Black Sea resorts are full,” says head of the Bulgarian Association of Travel Agencies (BATA) Donka Sokolova. The country expects a 20 percent rise in tourism revenues this year, she told local media.

Bulgaria earned some 800 million dollars from tourism last year. Over the past five years it has seen an average 13 percent year on year growth in tourist income.

“I don’t like these huge buildings along what used to be a quiet beach, but if it means jobs for us, we have to have it,” said Bojan Ivanov from Nesebar in Bulgaria. “Tourism is really something new for us.”

Neighbouring Romania does not count only on the legend of Count Dracula to bring in tourists, though it has invested millions of dollars in restoring an ancient castle where the legendary vampire is said to have lived.

New hotels dot the skyline along 250 km of Black Sea beaches. Tourism revenues have risen from 17 million dollars in 1999 to more than 600 million dollars in 2003, officials say.

Serbia is looking to the Athens Olympics to open up new tourism. Its main highway E- 75 from the northern border with Hungary to Macedonia in the south remains the principal road from Western Europe to Greece.

Tourists are being handed free maps of Serbia with a list of key attractions along the 600 km highway. Among the most attractive destinations listed is the nature reserve Stari Begej-Carska Bara. This reserve is home to about 250 rare bird species, 225 species of fish and 500 species of river and swamp plants.

“It is difficult to anticipate at present how many tourists we can have because of the Olympics,” head of the Serbian Tourist Office Milica Cubrilo told IPS. “We are aiming at 250 million dollars income from foreign tourists this year.”

Bosnia-Herzegovina, the country most damaged by the war of disintegration of former Yugoslavia boasted several tourist attractions in pre-war times. Its capital Sarajevo, an exotic mix of Oriental, European and local architecture was among the most important tourist points in the country. Bosnia was ruled by Turks for more than 400 years, and then by Austro-Hungarians. It became a part of Yugoslavia after World War I.

Local authorities hope that reconstruction of the Old Bridge in Mostar, a unique architectural site dating back to 17th century, will bring back tourists. The bridge was destroyed by the Croatian Army in 1993.

The opening ceremony last month brought thousands of tourists to the town. In just a day the Turkish style artifacts at the souvenir shops close to the bridge were sold out.

“This was a good sign,” former mayor of Mostar Safet Orucevic told IPS. “After years of deprivation and poverty, people here saw with their own eyes that tourism can be their new chance for a fresh start.”

The tourist office at Mostar figures that reopening of the bridge will bring in about 22 million dollars in revenue this year.

“After so many years, it was good to see buses with foreign licence plates and people speaking in so many different languages again,” local souvenir shop owner Ibro Mahic told IPS. “This means hope.”

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