The first association to Vareš? Blocked accounts of local authorities, unemployment, and emigration of young people! But this summer Vareš held competitions in paragliding accuracy landing, which involved more than 50 competitors, the football tournament, with about 200 participants in 16 teams, mountain bike cycling race on the 17 kilometers long track ... all organized by the Tourist agency "Visit Vareš" and extreme sports club "Perun Valium", with a little help "Help Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe" from Germany.

SUPPORT FROM LOCAL AUTHORITIES

And that is not it! Signals for 180 kilometers of hiking and biking trails, 16 orienteering maps , 17 barns and resting places for hikers, bikers and climbers is set in Vareš. The area of ​​local “Kraljevski grad Bobovac”, on the location of Luka, was renovated and new structure for the haystacks, benches and tables was set up, and on the Bobovac, on the object of the Association of Citizens "Guardians of the Bosnian crown Bobovac", one solar panel is set up.

- The effect of the tourist organization "Visit Vareš" began under a project in the Vareš area in ​​2014, carried out with non-governmental organization HELP, in cooperation with the extreme sports club "Perun Valium". With all of this that has been done in the field, it is provided and direct assistance in the development of thirteen households dealing with tourism activities, materials and equipment, and training, language courses etc. There is also a web page visitvares.com which serves to inform the public about upcoming events.

Around 200,000 KM was invested- says Almir Čikmiš, one of the creators of this project, and a history professor.

He emphasizes that all activities in the project are supported by the local authorities in the implementation of activities and help in the field, but also in the administrative part. For now they do not know how many people have passed through Vareš in the context of events that are organized, but they are sure that many benefit.

LET’S GO TO THE MOUNTAINS

- We do not have exact data on the number of visitors. In cooperation with the municipal department in charge of tourism, we are taking steps that will allow us to keep track of the exact number of tourists in Vareš. What we can say is that Vareš, especially the Zvijezda mountain, is visited by tourists from many countries: Serbia, Croatia, Italy, France, Germany ... These visits bring the greatest benefits for rural households and restaurants. Further development of tourism is opening a gift shop, service facilities and sales character. The ultimate goal is to present the Vareš municipality as an interesting tourist destination with distinctive content and to attract even more visitors. Our plan is to increase the number of visits and increase the number of people who will benefit from all this and for that we will in the next couple of years really be able to say that Vareš tourism is alive - says Almir.

He says that the main task in tourism promotion. First of all, a goal is to organize all that was organized this summer the next summer also!

- In the area of ​​Vareš there are eight registered national monuments, and the beauty of nature is indescribable, especially mountain Zvijezda. All this is combined with well-known hospitality of the people of our region, from rural households. In the last few years in Vareš is held a festival of classical music VaClaf in mid-september, with performers that find accommodation in rural households. Our goal is to organize as many new events, and tp enrich those - says Almir and stresses that, for the interested visitors of Vareš several tourist package offers are created, and they are also preparing flyers and brochures.

After this year's success have many plans to continue.

 Everything depends from the support of local authorities, but also all the people who are in any way involved in tourism. We are preparing a new content in the segment of sports tourism such as cycling, paragliding, mountain climbing, and our primary goal is the purchase of new equipment. Finances are a major problem - says Almir.

"Visit Vares" and "Perun Valium" are making winter offer packages that include mini ski-slope with ski-lifts and ride snowmobiles, all in cooperation with local farms.

The team that works all the good and important things is make out of a professor of geography and travel guide Admir Čizmo, a student of Tourism and Environmental Protection Miroslava Babić, licensed mountain guide and climber Mirza Zec and our guide and dynamic Almir Čikmiš. This team will soon be certified for tourist guides.

- Our organization consists of young and educated people who have willingly entered into this project. I think that the story about the organization "Visit Vareš" can serve as a positive example to other young people who want to contribute to their local community - says Almir.