Measure I.1– Improving the productivity and competitiveness of the area’s economic, rural and environmental resources.
Project Title:
Project Budget:
| Project Value | EU Contribution | |
| Republic of Serbia | € 183,031.32 | € 155,576.62 |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | € 269,121.90 | € 228,753.62 |
| TOTAL | € 452,153.22 | € 384,330.24 |
Beneficiary of funds in the Republic of Serbia: Tourism Organization of Western Serbia
Beneficiary of funds in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Local Democracy Foundation
Partners: Regional Development Agency Zlatibor and Sarajevo Economic Region Development Agency SERDA
Area of implementation:
- Serbia: Western Serbia Region (Uzice, Cajetina, Bajina Basta, Ivanjica, Arilje, Pozega, Kosjeric, Nova Varos, Prijepolje and Sjenica municipalities)
- Bosnia and Herzegovina: Sarajevo Macro Region (Olovo, Fojnica and Sarajevo municipalities)
The target groups of the project: management and employees of the spa and health tourism in cross-border area, 100 employees in 6 spa/health resorts, 80 employees in 10 tourism organizations (communities) in the cross-border area, 80 tour operators and travel agencies from Serbia and B&H and 30 from the region and the EU countries, 20 media representatives from B&H, Serbia and other regional countries, 20 NGO representatives from B&H and Serbia.
Project duration: 01.04. 2013 –30.09.2014-SRB
01.04. 2013 –31.10. 2014-BIH
Project objectives:
The overall objectives: Enhancing regional cooperation and sustainable economic development of border areas (B&H-Serbia) through the establishment of integrated joint tourist offer of health tourism
The specific objectives of the project:
-Development and placement of a new joint health tourism product integrated unified tourist offer of health tourism cross-border region.
-Increasing the capacity of offer of healthcare tourism in cross-border region through expansion of assortment of tourism products in the segment that promote healthy living, and responsibility for own health
Activities and results of the project
Cross SPA project had an aim to identify joint health tourism product of the two areas that have good natural resources for health tourism development. Creation of the joint tourism product started with additional analysis of resources and attractions, infrastructure, market position and consideration of possible development directions of joint product/joint programmes.
Identification of the existing capacities in the cross-border area and current trends in the neighbourhood helped in defining recommendations related to improvement of offer and creation of joint product.
Cross SPA project enabled quality of service within joint product through trainings for middle and executive management in spas, organized in accordance with standards of the European SPAs Association.
Air SPA Cigota transferred its experience in creating weight loss programmes to colleagues in Bosnia and some elements of that programme are redefined and adjusted as a platform for joint product.
The Project contributed to the infrastructure improvement in Olovo and Cigota Special Hospitals, in terms of provision of joint product services which promote prevention and healthy life – new fitness equipment has been purchased for both beneficiaries.
During the project implementation, 15 joint programmes were developed and each one of them included natural (Spas), historical and gastronomy components from each country. Additionally, Cigota and Fojnica Hospitals have created joint medical programme for prevention of postural disorders in children. Programme is based on Cigota’s experience in obesity programme “Cigotica” and Fojnica’s capacity in rehabilitation and physiotherapy.
Follow up of the product/programme was development of Marketing plan, as an instrument of long term promotional activities during the Project, which were realized through promotion at fairs, study tours for domestic and foreign journalists and tour operators, brochures and other publications.
In this way, the Project initiated further development of health tourism product that is the priority in both countries.
The project enabled increment of visibility in the tourism market, improving the tourism offer through joint activities and thus increasing the number of tourist visits to spas as well as to the whole region.
The excellent cooperation that was established between the six spas in the cross-border area, which will be continued through the implementation of the joint tourism product or rather through the identified several joint programmes offered in health tourism.
