Five new projects for cooperation with Bosnia and Herzegovina

Title: Comparative analysis of spatial development of sustainable tourism in protected areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia
Institutions: UP Faculty of Tourism Studies - Turistica and University of Sarajevo, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
UP project leader: dr. Simon Kerma

The question of sustainable development of protected areas is often pushed to the margins of scientific research on sustainability, due to the general perception that protected areas are sustainable per se. With the development of tourism and recreation, protected areas are becoming more and more visited, which results in many positive and negative spatial effects. Therefore, more and more spatial conflicts between the approaches of the more conservative (protection-oriented) and more liberal or "development" oriented management in protected areas can be observed. Among the many challenges in tourism management in protected areas, there is often no basis for concrete research aimed at determining the spatial consequences of tourism, which would result from defined and measurable indicators of the state of the environment. The main objective of the project is to elaborate a comparative analysis of the spatial (sustainable) development of tourism in protected areas in Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (on the level of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina).

Title: Comparative analysis of sustainable development of wine tourism in Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina with emphasis on wine events and festivals
Institutions: UP Faculty of Tourism Studies - Turistica and University of East Sarajevo
UP project leader: dr. Miha Lesjak

In addition to the analysis of sustainable wine tourism practices, we will pay special attention to wine events and festivals in the framework of cooperation and mutual visits of researchers. The latter are an important part of the offer of wine tourism in Slovenia and are successfully included in the integrated offer of destination tourism. Due to the newly created situation, this area is rather poorly researched, so the need to record the situation in the field of wine events and festivals is important from the point of view of organization and orientation in the COVID-19 period of the situation we are facing. The interdisciplinary research will thus provide appropriate indicators on the basis of which recommendations for the sustainable development of the field of wine tourism will be formulated. The purpose of the project is to formulate empirically supported proposals for the sustainable development of wine tourism (with an emphasis on wine events and festivals) in Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.