Croatia’s entry into Schengen could hamper pilgrim visits

After being unable to scale down the coronaviruses, Meugorje recorded a large number of pilgrim visits last year and almost reached pre-pandemic figures. Croatia s entry into Schengen could hinder one-day visits to Herzegovina because some transport companies from that country already announced that they will not organise trips to Me ugorje or Herzegovina due to possible congestion at the border.

Davor Ljubi, the president of the Association of Tourism, Hoteliers and Room Renters from Meugorje, told FENA that they had a noticeable increase in the number of visits since May.

People from Ireland, Italy, and Spain are coming in increasing numbers, as well as the return of overseas pilgrims, primarily from Latin America and Mexico, as well as the return of Western European pilgrims. Thanks to the opening of a direct line between New York and Dubrovnik, there has been a large number of people from America. We are satisfied in any way. This is a big shift compared to 2000 and 2001, Ljubi pointed out.

He said that Me ugorje is returning to pre-epidemic numbers.

He said that the preparation for the upcoming season is in addition to everything else, the presentation at the fairs and the capacitation of the staff are being carried out.

He thinks that work should be done on the revival of the Mostar Airport as soon as possible, and this was confirmed by Croatia s entry into Schengen.

These days we could already see the impact of Croatia s entry into Schengen. I am afraid that if some things are not resolved between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, traffic jams will be created during the summer season, so they might forget about one-day trips, from which Mostar and Mostar s restaurants and shops made their living in the first place. If you have to wait for several hours at the border, I am afraid there won't be any trips to this part of the country. Some transport companies from Croatia have already announced that they will not organize trips to Herzegovina, because of these problems, emphasized Ljubi Fena reports.