Not enough snow anymore: How climate change is pushing Bosnian resorts to pivot to summer tourism
By AP with Indrabati Lahiri
Revealed on
A brief drive from the Mediterranean coast, mid-altitude mountain resorts close to Sarajevo- historically depending on snow sports- are slowly however steadily pivoting to draw summertime vacationers.
Regardless of Bosnia’s notoriously poor record-keeping, tourism officers within the mountainous Balkan nation of three.3 million say a transparent development is rising.
“We used to depend on snow, however there isn’t any escaping the truth that snow is now prone to fall and accumulate at altitudes above 2,500 meters (8,000 ft) and our mountains are merely not that top,” Haris Fazlagic, the Sarajevo tourism board president, stated.
Fazlagic believes that by increasing their summer time choices, mountain resorts can lure vacationers away from the scorching warmth and excessive prices of conventional seaside holidays alongside the Adriatic coast of Croatia and Montenegro. He stated rising the world’s year-round attraction is “the way forward for tourism,” however acknowledged it’s a long-term technique.
In 2017, after a number of winters with little snow, the Jahorina and Bielasnica mountains close to Sarajevo started to increase their summer time choices. These mountains, which hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics, have elevations of 1,906 meters (6,253 ft) and a couple of,067 meters (6,781 ft), respectively.
They now function ski lifts year-round for scenic views and are steadily including new climbing, biking and ATV trails and excursions.
“The climate right here is fantastic- it’s not scorching in any respect,” Dusko Kurtovic, a customer from the Bosnian city of Doboj, stated whereas on a stroll throughout a brief trip in Jahorina final week.
Like different guests exploring the forest trails and driving ski lifts round Sarajevo, Kurtovic was dressed for balmy summer time climate. Temperatures right here usually keep between 24 and 30 levels Celsius.
The climate is a welcome change for vacationers, as coastal areas in Central and Jap Europe have skilled more and more frequent and extended warmth waves, with every day temperatures typically reaching 40 levels Celsius previously few years.
Vasilije Knezevic, who leads quad excursions of Jahorina’s highest peaks, famous that whereas the ski season was “bleak” due to the snow scarcity, they’re “having a superb summer time up to now.”
Enterprise may be rising within the mountains of Sarajevo, nevertheless it stays far much less worthwhile than seaside locations in neighbouring Croatia, the place tourism accounts for as much as 20% of the nation’s gross home product.
Only a five-hour drive from Sarajevo, the traditional metropolis of Dubrovnik is grappling with an abundance of vacationers. Not like their Bosnian counterparts who’re attempting to extend guests, Dubrovnik’s tourism authorities are targeted on managing crowds, limiting the variety of vacationers from cruise ships within the metropolis to 4,000 at anyone time throughout the day and proscribing site visitors across the Outdated City to native allow holders.
Regardless of these restrictions and excessive summer time warmth, Dubrovnik recorded almost two million in a single day stays within the first seven months of 2025, nearly double that of the Sarajevo area.
Whereas local weather change is driving Bosnia and Croatia towards totally different tourism methods, each nations share a standard goal: to “lengthen the season” and grow to be a “year-round vacationer vacation spot,” within the phrases of Aida Hodzic of the Dubrovnik tourism board.
