By Vladimir Djumic – Balkan Youth Union - www.bum.org.yu

Stress, nervousness…

Anxiety, tensions…

Urban Life, traffic...

Money chasing…

Too much information...

STRESS, STRESS, STRESS...

Nothing new if we speak about the stress, anxiety and life rhythm in the city, urban life…

It’s a starting point!

If we are thinking about a trend, where people feel, now more than ever, needs to go out from their towns to the countryside to enjoy the beauties of the silence, nature, fresh air, tasty food…

…to SLOW DOWN, to RELAX,

…to ENJOY, to BREATHE,

…to REGENERATE, to LIVE!

…Than it’s normal if WE ARE THINKING about the creation of a completely NEW LIFESTYLE and new opportunities for the TOURISM DEVELOPMENT

The fact is that the Western Balkans is underdeveloped - still, especially if we talk about the accommodationfacilities and basic (tourism) infrastructure.

This IMPORTANT FACT leave us no space to think about the development of the industrial mass tourism and about big profits.

This fact COULD BE one interesting comparative advantage to the rest of Europe andthere is A CHANCE for the development ofTHE SMALL AND MEDIUM BUSINESS.

I would like to present another comparative advantages.

Big natural potentials like beautiful lakes, meanders, canyons, hills and mountains, rivers, forests, plenty of fresh and clean water and pleasant climate are our reality.

All countries around the World are trying to protect these valuables and use them in order to attract people from abroad.

In the Western Balkans we can also be proud on hospitality and generosity of our people, which is also one big issue in tourism.

But (always one BIG BUT)…

The lack of awareness about the environmental issues – especially on NATURE PROTECTION is a big problem that couldn’t be resolved so easily.

It’s a job for this and for the next 10 generations, so we need to start it now.

Another problem is a lack of IT in Tourism, but the situation is getting better and better thanks to YOUNG enthusiasts who made a big progress

in this area.

There are many regions all over Western Balkans where we can find extremely beautiful natural resources and even untouched nature.

Mostly, these are underdeveloped areas without basic infrastructure for a decent life, so if we speak about tourism – it’s something even more abstract, but people beginning to realize.

In these areas it’s very difficult to start with a creation of a new infrastructure because it needs huge investments and local inhabitants couldn’t afford to maintain their own houses so it’s ridiculous to expect they can make significant changes in a short period of time.

All of these leave enough space for the development of another type of tourism which can attract all people who like nature, animals, fresh air, long walk, horse and mountain bike riding, rafting, hiking, climbing, fishing or just like to spend time on the open space.

This type of tourism involves tents, and mostly young people, but, this type of tourism also attracts, more and more, families throughout Europe and the rest of the World.

If we can imagine a chain of beautiful camps settled down on the banks of beautiful lakes or rivers, or deep in the forest or on the top of beautiful hills, than it can be THE BEGINNING of a new development of tourism.

Camps doesn’t necessarily needs big investments, construction of the buildings or highways to reach it, so it can be a good start to DEVELOP TOURISM WITHOUT BASIC INFRASTRUCTURE.

Those camps should be an integral part of the nature that surrounds them and that should be the meaning of the camps – TO ATTRACT PEOPLE WHO LIKE NATURE, and one of the core messages should be an ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION.

Beside this, if we take into consideration the fact of a lack of the ecological awareness, these camps could be the places where we can start rising this on a much higher level, especially through the programmes of alternative education and even through national school curricula. By this we could make a huge influence on our youngest population to start to think about the nature and about its protection, to start to think that this could be the way how to attract people from abroad to come to their country.

Also, one very important issue in awareness raising is youth exchange, so camps could be commercial, but they could also be school camps with serious school programmes or special programmes for the kids with special needs etc.

It could be a double benefit. It’s maybe too expensive for most parents to send their kids abroad for some school excursion, but it could be significantly cheaper to send them to camp where they can enjoy company of other kids from the rest of the world.

So, by the development of this kind of tourism, we DO NOT NEED to build all those fancy hotels and motels and restaurants. We can start from here, from what we have, making only space for tents, and leaving space for the local people to show how good hosts they can be, supplying food and preparing meals for the guests of the camps.

So, on the end we can all have a multiple benefit:–We will learn that we need to protect our environment

–We will help new generations to become much more aware about what they inherited, relations to the nature and to the people, to become more responsible and better human beings.

–We will create opportunities for incomes generation

–We will ‘wake up’ the whole surrounding area

–We will protect the nature and we’ll take care about it

–We will keep our youngest generations in the villages, they will not leave the country

–We will create many new opportunities for a quality life

In the first period of development without basic infrastructure we can try to create enough resources to invest in further improvement of accommodation facilities, WISELY, so simple tents pitches can become bungalows or holiday homes.

If we can take care about the environment,by the development of this type of tourism we

can not ruin what we inherited and we can leave something to our kids to keep it further as a treasure for the next generations.

DOCARE!

On the very end, a modern technologies provide us with more opportunities and leave us more space for various types of marketing, so with all sorts of marketing tools together, Western Balkans should be one unique and interesting new destination for many tourist from European countries who already discovered most of the Europe and World top destinations.

Involvement and active role of the youth in all processes of this development is very important and significant.

If we leave more space to the youth to be a part of the process – from the creation of the camp sites to its marketing and promotion, then we’ll have a winning combination.

Young people much better use opportunities of the new technologies (internet information exchange, digital photography, web design and multimedia) so it should be a great precondition for a brighter future in this region.

www.IfYouDontKnowAskUncleGoogle.com

So, summarizing all of this,

the conclusion is obvious.

If we combine ENVIRONMENT and TOURISM, YOUNG PEOPLE and CAMPS with KNOWLEDGE and

AWARENESS and SELF-AWARENESS, WE ARE definitely MAKING

PROGRESS towards a better FUTURE

By Vladimir Djumic, Balkan Youth Union

www.bum.org.yu | www.camps-serbia.com | www.kampovi.org