The Neum-Stolac highway is already showing the results of its construction, as Neum records an increase in the number of visitors, so the pearl of the Adriatic in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is currently a place where the majority of domestic and diaspora guests, as well as those from Serbia and Poland, are accommodated.
”In these twenty days after the opening of the road, it has been noticed that the traffic has increased and that there is a greater number of vehicles on the road itself, and therefore a greater number of arrivals in Neum. True, these are mostly one-day arrivals, but the effect and results of the road are already showing,” Neum Mayor Dragan Jurkovic told in an interview with agency Fena.
Back in the campaign, he announced that one of his priorities was the development of the Neum hinterland.
”The highway will make it much easier for us. Currently, through the preparation of the Spatial Plan of the Neum municipality, we are planning to build two business zones that will be closely connected along this road, and the construction of the road opened up the potential of rural tourism as well,” said Jurkovic, adding that it is about the industrial zones of Dubrava (at the interchange near Babin dol along the new road) and Cerovica (at the interchange Stolac-Neum-Capljina).
In recent years, there have been infrastructure works around Neum, and one of the largest construction sites was that of the Peljeski Bridge in neighboring Croatia, and Jurkovic also gave his opinion on how the opening of this bridge will affect Neum.
”The opening of the Peljeski bridge will relieve us of the daily traffic and ensure a kind of relaxed relationship and a greater flow of guests to Neum. I think that it will go in that direction, but we will wait for the opening of the bridge in a few days to see how things will go,” he asserted.
According to him, the tourist season in Neum is satisfactory, and compared to the record year 2019, the figure of 80 percent was reached that year.
”The season is currently at 85 to 95 percent occupancy of our capacities and we expect these days that the capacities will be maximally occupied and that we will continue with maximum occupancy for the next forty days, ” pointed out the mayor of the only BiH city on the sea.
