Mountain resorts in BiH are turning to summer tourism

Mid-altitude mountain resorts near Sarajevo, traditionally dependent on winter sports, are slowly but surely reorienting themselves to attract tourists during the summer.

Despite Bosnia and Herzegovina's notoriously poor record-keeping, tourism officials in the country told The Associated Press (AP) that a new trend is clearly visible.

"We used to rely on snow, but there's no escaping the fact that in the future, snow will likely fall and stay at altitudes above 2.500 meters, and our mountains are simply not that high," said Haris Fazlagić, president of the Sarajevo Canton Tourist Board.

Fazlagić believes that by expanding its summer offerings, mountain resorts can attract tourists looking to escape the scorching heat and high prices of traditional summer vacations on the Adriatic coast of Croatia and Montenegro. He told the AP that increasing the area’s year-round appeal is “the future of tourism,” but acknowledged that it’s a long-term strategy.

AP reports that Jahorina and Bjelašnica began expanding their summer offerings in 2017 after several snow-poor winters. The mountains, which hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics, are 1.906 meters and 2.067 meters above sea level, respectively.

Today, cable cars operate on them year-round, offering panoramic views, and new trails and tours for hiking, biking, and off-roading are constantly being added.

“The weather here is fantastic, not hot at all,” said Duško Kurtović, a visitor from Doboj, while walking during a short vacation on Jahorina last week.

Like other visitors exploring forest trails and riding cable cars around Sarajevo, Kurtovic was dressed for the pleasant summer weather, AP writes, adding that temperatures here usually range between 24 and 30 degrees Celsius.

The weather is a welcome change for tourists, as coastal regions in central and eastern Europe have seen increasingly frequent and prolonged heat waves in recent years, with daytime temperatures often reaching 40 degrees Celsius.

Vasilije Knežević, who leads four-wheel drive (quad) tours to the highest peaks of Jahorina, said that the ski season was "dismal" due to the lack of snow, but that "this summer is going fantastically so far."

AP reports that business in the mountains of Sarajevo, while perhaps growing, still brings in significantly less revenue than coastal destinations in Croatia, where tourism accounts for up to 20 percent of the country's gross domestic product.

Just a five-hour drive from Sarajevo, the ancient city of Dubrovnik is struggling with an overabundance of tourists. Unlike its Bosnian counterparts, which are trying to boost visitor numbers, Dubrovnik's tourism authorities are focused on crowd management, limiting the number of cruise ship tourists in the city to 4.000 at any one time during the day and restricting traffic around the Old Town to only local residents with permits.

Despite these restrictions and the extreme summer heat, Dubrovnik recorded almost two million overnight stays in the first seven months of 2025, almost twice as many as the Sarajevo region.

Although climate change is forcing BiH and Croatia to devise different tourism strategies, both countries have a common goal: to “extend the season” and become “year-round tourist destinations,” said Aida Hodžić of the Dubrovnik Tourist Organization.