May 6, 2008, 14:42 GMT
Trebinje, Bosnia-Herzegovina - Bosnia-Herzegovina, once a war zone, is going to great lengths to rebrand itself as a long-forgotten tourist jewel of south-eastern Europe.
Local and foreign tourism entrepreneurs see growing opportunities in a land that offers a wide range of recreation - snowy mountains, proximity to the Adriatic Sea - and bargain prices. Last year, the number of visiting tourists grew by 16.9 per cent.
Trebinje, the country's southernmost and sunniest town, hopes to regain popularity in a bid to draw visitors from more popular destinations featured on Bosnian tourism websites. It helps that the town largely avoided the country's 1992-95 war.
Trebinje is hoping to become a piece of a puzzle to help the growth of tourist numbers. Although they still do not have precise statistics about tourists visiting their town, the Tourist Office of Trebinje said 'the number of tourists is increasing from day to day.'
In 2007, more than 1 million people were registered as visitors to Trebinje, but most passed through on a short visit.
A nice, peaceful vacation in unspoilt natural settings or in places where every house has a rich historical and cultural heritage as well as delicious food and good wines could be a magnet for domestic and foreign visitors, tourism experts say.
'Trebinje and the entire region of eastern Herzegovina for sure have great possibilities for reviving the tourism,' director of Trebinje's Fair on Tourism and Trade Ljiljana Cickovic said.
Tourists could be attracted to the area by its rich offer of cultural and historical spots, religious or adventure tours, as well as hunting or fishing.
Cickovic and her colleagues have organized three tourist and trade fairs - Mediterranean Days in Trebinje - in the last two years and continue to promote tourist offer and its surroundings.
'We also plan to construct a unique ethno-village near the village of Berkovici, some 60 kilometres northwest from Trebinje, known for its hunting resorts, which would also attract foreign tourists to come to the area,' she said.
The future ethno-village would be a magnet en route to another Herzegovinan pearl - Medjugorje, the best known and the most visited Roman Catholic shrine in the region.
Medjugorje, where the Virgin Mary allegedly appeared to a group of local child shepherds, is some 110 kilometres northwest of Trebinje.
Slovenian businessmen have also recognized Trebinje's tourist potential and recently announced a project to build Trebinje Resort.
The resort would host luxurious hotels, apartments and residential villas with 5,000 to 8,000 bed capacity and be located halfway between Trebinje and the Croatian Adriatic coast near Dubrovnik, offering its guests the possibilities of enjoying the hinterland of Herzegovina and the beautiful nearby coast.
The luxurious tourist complex is expected to be completed by 2016 and would probably revive good connections between the area known as Old Herzegovina and Croatia's coast.
The link was cut during the wars in Croatia and then in Bosnia- Herzegovina, following the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.
The road between Trebinje and Dubrovnik that was free to pass for ages now has a crossing on Ivanjica hill, where Bosnia-Herzegovina borders Croatia.
Before new states were created and borders redrawn, Trebinje was a must-stop place, offering a pleasant rest in its beautiful parks with plane-trees and buildings reflecting different eras - Roman times, medieval Bosnian rulers, down through Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian rule until the present day.
Despite escaping war damage, years of neglect left marks on its infrastructure, especially roads passing through wild Bosnia- Herzegovina's mountains and forests on the way to Sarajevo, the capital.
Minefields left after the war also remain a problem that scares tourists away and make them rethink a visit to Bosnia.
Trebinje is among the few places not contaminated with mines and it is safe to walk on the green fields and vineyards along the Trebisnjica River, one of the longest sinking rivers in the world - that flows some 98 kilometres under and above the ground.
The town still hosts an old bridge from the Turkish era known as as Arslanagica (Arslanagic's Bridge), built in 16th century by the Grand Vizier Mehmed Pasa Sokolovic (Sokollu Mehmet Pasha), who also built the old bridge on the Drina river in the eastern Bosnian town of Visegrad, now on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
After an artificial lake was created for the hydro-electric power plant Grancarevo near the Montenegrin border in 1970, the bridge was relocated stone by stone some 10 kilometres upriver near downtown Trebinje where it still stands.
Tourists interested in history, local tradition and religion have plenty to view in the Museum of Herzegovina, as well as some 15 Orthodox churches and monasteries, two Catholic churches and the old town's mosque, destroyed during the war by the local Serb population, and reconstructed around eight years ago.
Apart from several historical, cultural or religious monuments and beautiful nature, tourists in Trebinje and its surroundings may also enjoy excellent wines and delicious homemade cuisine which has been slightly influenced by Mediterranean cuisine.
The area is proud of its red wine known as Vranac (black horse) and dry white wine Zilavka, specific for Herzegovina only, but also of smoked goat meat and strong local cheeses.
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