Due to the closed borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) for foreign tourists in Medjugorje, despite the interest of thousands of foreign guests from different parts of the world, there is devastation and despair of catering and tourism workers who record irreparable damage every day.
It is evident that the situation is extremely difficult in this Herzegovinian town, and during a conversation with catering and tourism workers, it was found out that they gave everything they could to start working after 18 months of pause, but that it was all in vain without governing structures.
“We have also set up Covid checkpoints here to allow tourists to test more easily, but if the border authorities do not open it, it is useless for us to do it, we are just sinking day by day,” told one of the sad caterers in Medjugorje.
Zeljko Vasilj, the head of the office of the Tourist Board in Medjugorje, has repeatedly pointed out that without foreign tourists and the opening of borders it is not possible to have tourism in Medjugorje.
He reminded that foreign tourists come to this Herzegovinian town throughout the year and that during June, in which the 25th anniversary of Our Lady’s apparitions is marked, Medjugorje is visited by hundreds of thousands of foreign tourists.
More than 100 thousand people attended only the three days of Our Lady’s apparitions, and over 50 thousand young people gathered after that at the International Youth Festival, which clearly indicates how important this month is for Medjugorje.
Tourist workers emphasize that the invitations of guests who want to come to that town appear every day from all sides, but they cannot give them an adequate answer. This is why enormous losses are being recorded.
Pointing out the difficult situation of the tourism sector, tourism workers from Medjugorje launched an initiative to ease the conditions for entering BiH, but the Council of Ministers did not make such a decision at the last session, which lead to dissatisfaction of the tourism sector across the country.
This is why tourist workers from all over Herzegovina united and decided to protest in front of the Parliament building in the BiH capital on June 8th at 11 am, Klix
E.Dz.