Spa and health tourism: an opportunity for Serbia and the region!

Serbia has a great number of spa resorts all throughout the country. They are quite a popular destination not only for domestic tourists but also for foreign tourists that visit this country. Reasons for their visit are different but one of the first ones is health and rehabilitation. These spas are places with an abundance of healing water full of minerals, natural gas good for treatment and mud that's rare to find in the whole region. People go there and use these natural resources to treat rheumatoid arthritis, problems with digestion and to rehabilitate from physical and neurological injuries and diseases. The question is, is that all that these spas could be used for? Is their potential being exploited to its fullest for the good of the people? I visited one of these places and I was struck by the current issues and potentials that such places can have.

I visited a spa center near the town of Bujanovac in southern Serbia called Bujanovacka Banja. A friend of mine from Bujanovac broke his arm and was obligated to undergo a treatment at this place. He was visiting it regularly for rehabilitation and one time I went along with him. It was the first time I saw a spa of this kind in Serbia. My first impression was quite negative. The building was old dating from the communist time and it wasn't in great condition. However, I was taken aback when I saw old photographs of what the spa of Bujanovac used to look like thirty years ago hung on the walls of the corridor. Apparently, there was a big lake of this healing mineral water just outside of the building. The water was running out of little fountains. Kids were playing all covered in mud. There were hundreds of people enjoying the spa. In contrary, today, the lake is dried out, there are far fewer people attending the spa and the premises inside haven't changed much in the last three decades.

Furthermore, the citizens of Bujanovac are facing an even more sensitive problem. As I’ve mentioned in my previous article, Bujanovac is mostly populated by the Albanian community. However, there is not one Albanian worker employed in Bujanovacka Banja. Ironically, many of the patients visiting it are Albanians. Most of all, it represents a problem for the younger generations who go there for treatment but don’t speak Serbian. This is when I realized just how much these places are being left behind and not taken care of while being so rich with natural resources as well as demographic diversity. People from all communities living there could equally enjoy the advantages of their land and nature if only we would turn to use our resources.

What the spa can be used for:

There are two important things I found out during my short visit there. First, the temperature of the water in the spa resort of Bujanovac can reach up to 100 degrees Celsius. In various canals runs  even hotter water. I heard about another nearby spa called Vranjska Banja, located near the town of Vranje, where the water reaches up to 110 degrees. They say it’s a spa with the hottest water in all of Europe, having ten thermal sources. Second, little is known that the potential of these spas. Is is huge that their waters could be used to heat up the houses of both of these municipalities and surrounding villages. It’s a renewable energy source which not only would help the communities living here benefit from it but would also attract more tourists who come for health reasons to visit this part of Serbia. At the same time, this would give the country an opportunity to expand on tourism, which would also connect the region more in terms of economy and directly improve the relations between our neighboring countries. No matter what community they belong to, people would finally get a chance to use the land and soil they live on and everything it has to offer to improve their life standard and the quality of living.

Author: Tomislav Perušić