Bosnian and Herzegovinian (BiH) adventurer Robert Dacesin believes that by introducing a few changes, it is possible to improve tourism in our country. In his new video, he presented 15 ideas through which this can be achieved.
“Why is it that our country, with nature that is truly among the most beautiful in the world, with a history longer than that of most countries in the world, with food that absolutely everyone is delighted by – why have we not found our place on the world’s tourist map?” he asked.
He said that BiH has fewer than two million tourists annually, while Albania, which was once a synonym for underdeveloped tourism, now has 12 million tourists per year. He then shared 15 suggestions to improve the tourist offer of BiH cities. First, he proposed opening a Museum of Love and Friendship.
“If we’re being realistic, apart from the National Museum in Sarajevo, the War Childhood Museum, and a few smaller museums like the Herzegovina Museum in Trebinje, we realistically do not have a good museum in the country. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard a foreigner visit one of our cities and then say at the end how good a museum was,” Dacesin said.
He believes that a Museum of Love and Friendship is an ideal way to be creative and pay tribute to what is important to each of us. Visitors could donate items that are meaningful to them, accompanied by a message.
“The items in the museum could be gifts you received as a child from your grandmother and grandfather, tickets from your first trip to the cinema with your husband or wife, or anything that defines your love and friendship with someone dear to you,” he said.
He then proposed creating small statues of famous personalities.
“Imagine that across a certain city in our country, you could see very small statues of individual people from that city or from the entire country. In that way, we could have statues of Bosnian kings, singers, actors, artists, writers, poets, athletes…,” he explained.
He believes that a digital travel planner would also improve the BiH tourism offer, given that one of the biggest problems is the lack of published information about what tourists can do in specific places. As his fourth proposal, he mentioned QR codes on sites.
“If we’re being realistic, 99 percent of people, when they stop in front of a church, mosque, monastery, fortress, or anything else, don’t know much about it. They will stay there for a few minutes, take a few photos, and move on without being aware of the story they missed. What if we marked all our tourist landmarks with QR codes, where by scanning them, people would get a short video lasting one to two minutes about what that place represents?” he said.
Dacesin also believes that audio benches would enrich our tourist offer. When arriving at a location, a traveler could rest, connect via Bluetooth, and listen to an interesting story about the objects around them. He also believes that painted manhole covers in neighborhoods would complete the atmosphere, as would underwater sculptures in a lake. He cited Jablanica Lake as an ideal location for placing underwater sculptures.
In addition to the above, he believes that some smaller, practical things would have a positive impact, including: installing protective awnings from sun and rain at pedestrian crossings, installing summer cooling stations, and pumps and mini tools for bicycles.
A Musicians’ Park would contain sculptures of our most famous musicians. When you stood in front of one of their sculptures, you would hear their song.
“Imagine a park with statues of Halid Beslic, Zdravko Colic, Hari Mata Hari, Dino Merlin, Crvena Jabuka, Dubioza Kolektiv, or some other bands and singers, where every visit to that park would bring a lot of music and joy into your life,” he said.
Traditional patterns as wall decorations would bring a new dimension to our everyday life, while also delighting tourists. Dacesin further proposes opening a Museum of Communism.
“Museums of this type exist all over the world. Communist history is quite interesting to most travelers, and it often happens to me that when someone comes to Banja Luka, and we go into the city, they stop to take photos in front of some of the most Soviet-style architecture that exists, because people want to see something different, and scenes like this on Korcanica are very rare,” he explained.
Dacesin also proposed opening a Museum of Emotions. It would consist of seven rooms, each dedicated to one emotion. Staircases decorated with verses by poets would also leave an impression on visitors, Klix.ba writes.
