European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 11, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Yugoslavia s dramatic Adriatic coast and charming old cities Are normally full of tourists but ethnic unrest has killed virtually All business this tourism a victim of summer s fighting by Blaine Harden the Washington Post there is no reason for yugoslav Lalko Brajkov who rents boats for a living to pull the All weather Tarpaulin off his George hush style speedboat and haul it Down to the Adriatic. Brajkov bought the speedboat in anticipation of another Banner season at Bol a splendid Village on the Island of Brae and for years one of the country s most crowded tourist resorts. With communism finally dead in this part of Yugoslavia Brajkov Felt it was time for a Young entrepreneur such As himself to take risks. He borrowed $25,000. The boat was supposed to take Rich germans and italians on Day cruises. Now with summer slipping into what should be High season with his speedboat berthed in a parking lot and without a tourist in sight Brajkov wonders How i could have been so wrong. Quot no excursions. No Money. No nobody Quot Brajkov moaned. Quot this summer is finished. This is yugoslav politics Quot / the operative word this year in Yugoslavia s $2.5 billion tourist Industry a a business that annually earns about 40 percent of he country s hard currency a is the threat of out and out civil War in Yugoslavia which has been trumpeted for months on the front pages of european newspapers been accompanied by clashes Between ethnic groups and with Federal troops has effectively destroyed the 1491 tourist season hotel managers and government officials say. Conflict Between Yugoslavia s two largest ethnic groups serbs and croats has All but stopped tourist travel in Eastern Croatia in the past 10 months. The main Road from Zagreb the croatian capital to the Adriatic coast has alternately been closed or considered too risky for tourists. The . And British governments have warned their nationals to avoid the area. With funding and encouragement from the Republic of Serbia the serbian minority living in Eastern Croatia has defied Federal authorities by declaring a 90-by-30-mile strip of territory to be the Quot serbian autonomous Region of i fighting in Eastern Croatia most of it Between heavily armed serbs and equally Well armed croatian police has claimed at least 50 lives since May. As bad As the violence has been the political rhetoric accompanying it has been worse a at least for the tourist Industry. Pointing to a recent statement by the Federal defense minister Gen. Veljko Kadijevic that Quot yugoslav society has already entered a civil War Quot tour operators grumble that Yugoslavia is the first tourist destination in history to announce a civil War before one actually broke out. Quot we Are looking at what is happening and it is like some calamity like an earthquake or a Volcano. We need disaster Relief Quot said Smiljan Simauc assistant minister for tourism in Croatia. Simac said this calamity is Man made a that is made by serbs trying to sabotage the croatian Economy. Croatia the second largest of the six republics in Yugoslavia has declared Independence from the rest of the country. Serbia the largest Republic opposes the move and has said it will fight to prevent the 600,000 serbs who live in Croatia from becoming part of another country. As the sabers rattle on into the tourist season with no one quite sure what will become of Yugoslavia Croatia s tourist ministry estimates the Republic already has lost $500 million in Revenue. It says the jobs of half a million people Are affected. The decline of tourism hurls Croatia More than any other Republic. Its highly developed Adriatic resorts account for 82 percent of yugoslav tourist Revenue. All along the croatian coast hotels that were booked solid last year Are now nearly empty. Many Are advertising room and full Board for As Little As $200 a week. Charter flights trom across Western Europe and from Israel have been cancelled. In Bol where five big hotels have rooms for 2,300 guests occupancy last weekend was 15 percent. Half the Village s restaurants and shops were closed. On a Brilliant sunday morning with a cloudless sky and a warm Breeze there was nobody windsurfing and nobody sailing. With 21 freshly groomed Clay courts to choose from just two people were playing Tennis. The Bol hotels Only three of which even bothered to open their doors have no intention of hiring the 600 yugoslavs who Are normally added for the High season. By Midsummer without bailout Loans managers Here say they will have no Money to pay their 500 regular employees. Quot normally in this situation the solution would be to close Down the place and Lay off the workers Quot said Antun Plenkovic marketing manager for the hotels in Bol. Quot what is sad is that Vve were one of the Best tourist operations in Croatia. We even made a profit under socialism. Quot the Best thing is for us to live together with serbs but with separate governments and separate accounting books. If be books could be kept separate then i think we would gel \ Austria Hungary Romania 100 Kmap 24 stripes Magazine july 11, 1991 de
