Bosanskohercegovački potencijali razvoja nekroturizma
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA’S POTENTIAL FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF NECRO TOURISM

Summary/Abstract: Necro tourism is a young and still relatively unknown and underdeveloped type of tourism that has been experiencing intense expansion in numerous countries around the world in recent decades. People’s interest in visiting sites of distress has a long history. However, only in the second half of the 20th century did it experience the character of planned and organized visits through agencies and institutions specialized in providing such services. Such services also imply a certain amount of compensation, which makes these visits tourist based and that they become an integral part of regular economic flows. Along with increasing tourists’ interest in necro-tourist sites, this phenomenon is gradually coming into focus of the academic community, which seeks to provide a theoretical framework for necro tourism. However, not all dilemmas caused by the appearance of necro tourism, including basic terminology, have yet been fully resolved, but the general consensus is that the concept of necro tourism or dark tourism implies the practice of visiting sites related to some form of death or distress. Despite justified criticism from part of the expert and general public that necro tourism encourages the commercialization of death and distress, in many countries around the world this type of tourism is experiencing intense development. Bosnia and Herzegovina’s neighbours are also catching up with this new global trend and are seeking to improve existing infrastructure and offerings. In the context of Bosnia and Herzegovina it is necessary to emphasize that there are huge, less controversial, necro tourism potentials primarily in the form of medieval tombstones called stećak, but also of other similar objects and sites. Nonetheless, necro tourism is still a relatively unknown trend in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and there is still much work to be done in presenting and popularizing it with the ultimate goal of specializing tourism offer and making better use of existing tourism resources.

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