The final results of the EU-funded project “Sustainable tourism development – from Herzegovina trails to Dubrovnik Elafiti islands” were presented on 17 November 2016 in Ravno. The project identified and marked hiking and biking trails along the Via Dinarica Blue Trail in the area of Popovo Field, bordered by the municipalities of Ljubinje, Trebinje, Ravno and Neum, as well as on Elaphite Islands in Croatia. Some 268 households, hotels, motels, restaurants, producers of traditional products, cultural and historical monuments, adventure activities like trekking, hiking, caving, kayaking, paragliding, hunting, and natural sites in this area are now mapped and offer a complete tourist product to visitors and guests.
Massimo Mina, Head of Operations Section for Social Development, Civil Society and Cross Border Co-operation in the Delegation of the European Union to BiH, underlined the EU’s constant support to tourism in BiH as 7 million EUR were provided for competitive niches such as adventurous tourism, eco zones, cultural and natural trails in the country.
“While this is an official closing of the project, yet it represents the starting point of a greater endeavour – a new tourist product connecting Herzegovina and Dubrovnik areas along the Via Dinarica Blue Trail”, Mina said.
Mina has also emphasised the importance of the tourism sector in the country’s economic development. “Tourism is one of the key sectors of the European economy, which generates over 10% of GDP in a broader context”, Mina concluded.
The project also helped open a tourist rest area located in a pine forest along the road connecting Ravno with the border crossing Čepikuće. In the resort, the Ravno Municipality will soon set up educational info panels with detailed information on the biological diversity of the area.
The project also aimed to fully promote the local resources and trails by developing the website www.viadinarica-bluetrail.com with a searchable database of the local tourism resources, maps of trails, and multimedia content.
The event in Ravno was attended by the representatives of tourism organisations, service providers in the tourism industry, micro and small enterprises, craftsmen working in the tourism sector, mountaineering and biking associations, associations for rural development, producers of traditional products and representatives of other relevant institutions.
The project was funded by the European Union under the IPA Cross Border Cooperation Programme Croatia – Bosnia and Herzegovina 2007-2013 in the amount of € 505,930.37 EUR of which the EU financed 83.63%. It has been implemented within 24 months in the area of the municipalities Ravno, Neum, Ljubinje and Trebinje (BiH), the City of Dubrovnik and Elaphite Islands (CRO).
It was jointly implemented by: the Entrepreneurship and Business Association LiNK Mostar, Municipality of Ravno, ATA BiH – Adventure Tourism Association and OXFAM from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Tourist Board of the City of Dubrovnik, Development Agency of the City of Dubrovnik DURA, UHPA – Association of Croatian Travel Agencies (Croatia) and Kallipolis (Italy).
The Via Dinarica initiative promotes small business and economic development at the local, national and international level, in the field of services and tourism, and agriculture and cultural heritage. The purpose of trails (hiking, walking and biking) is to connect countries and communities across the Dinaric Alps through the creation of unique and distinct tourism offer.
