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Sarajevo is the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the countries to emerge from the break up of Yugoslavia. The city has a hard task to change most people’s initial mental image, including my own, of Sarajevo being the location of the longest siege in modern history during the 1990s war.
Sarajevo sunset by willhybrid
However perceptions do change and move on as we’ve seen with the emergence of Belfast in Northern Ireland as a popular short break destination after decades of “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland.
Have you visited Sarajevo? What did you most like about it? How do you think Sarajevo can overcome its past to attract more visitors? Personally I believe that the rebranding of Sarajevo to a popular tourist destination will take some time and be achieved by a steady flow of positive travel reviews.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Zh11375 // Jun 18, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Have been there many times since 1997. Every year it seems more interesting. Always has been unique, but now has the potential to be a wonderful place to visit in Europe. Better infrastructure could help (better roads to/from, more direct flights from European capitals, etc.)
2 thierry // Jun 18, 2009 at 10:01 pm
you are so right karen. sharing positive travel and work experiences together with accurate information about how sarajevo really is now and not how it was 10 years ago is what will change the travelers world perception.
what we tell people constantly is to take a trip to sarajevo and see for themselves that sarajevo has got it all: authenticity, friendly out going and social people, it’s safe, lots of interesting cultural events all through the year(www.sff.ba), great music scene, affordable, unique cultural mix of east and west, 20-30 min away from incredible mountains and endless forests, it’s in europe, good food, and above all great coffee.
we’d love to do several follow up articles on the city. fyi, tim clancy one of our partners in green visions, our sarajevo based eco tourism development organization, wrote the bradt guide to bosnia and herzegovina. we’ve been endlessly promoting sarajevo and bosnia for the past 10 years as well as helping local people develop responsible tourism activities.
thank you for putting sarajevo in a positive light.
thierry
3 Karen Bryan // Jun 19, 2009 at 12:54 am
Zh – thanks for your comment. It did cross my mind that I wasn’t sure how I’d get to Sarajevo from the UK. I think that if a low cost carrier such as Ryanair start flights there that would really kick start visitors numbers.
thierry – yes if more people start to visit Sarajevo and talk about it enthusiastically, perceptions will change.
Please submit any articles about Sarajevo to Top Travel Content Europe as possible Readers Tips posts.
4 Kelly Pipes - Sandwagon // Jun 19, 2009 at 1:55 am
Hi
I visited Sarajevo in 2007 and wrote this article about my experience. I’m sure that much has changed since then. I can’t wait to make a return visit.
http://sandwagon.blogspot.com/2007/11/welcome-to-sarajevo-was-predictable.html
5 Karen Bryan // Jun 19, 2009 at 1:58 am
Kelly – thanks very much for the link to your post about Sarajevo.
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