Most of you reading these lines can say that you grew up between the city and the countryside. You know what the smell of freshly cut grass is like, what the sound of a herd of cattle returning from grazing is like, and what it looks like when a child happily runs after chickens in the yard. Today's children experience this less and less. And what is truly worrying is that those of us who know this are becoming parents, grandparents, and city dwellers.
The child of the future increasingly sees domestic animals only on the screen, through cartoons, social networks, or, fortunately, with those who have found the motivation to stay in the countryside and live, as they can and as they are used to, allowing tourism to make their days easier, bring new perspectives, and teach us to appreciate the domestic, local, and indigenous.
Nešković Nursery – Bratunac
And that's why this is not just a story about a village, but about us. About whether we will close the doors to a world forever or turn it into an experience that changes and preserves.
Today, when a cow by the roadside is painted as an attraction, and an egg from a chicken coop becomes an "authentic experience," it's clear how far we've come. What was once life is now a tourist product.
Photos: Kajmak from the bellows – Gacko, Gastro brochure – TORS, Nana Kaas goat farm, Gacko beef
And that's where our chance lies. Small, but we have it. While most people are losing touch with nature and reality, we can preserve it through tourism. It's neglected, but not lost. Let's not let it go to waste, let's use it. Rural, village.
Let's turn the spotlight on these people. Let's build an authentic offering, not for the sake of trends and folklore of the masses, but to satisfy the needs of the modern traveler and at the same time strengthen the economy of the man on his property.
Photos: Velika Greda – Manjača, Beekeeping Kovačević – Trebinje, Canyoning on the Korana River – Pecka/Mrkonjić Grad
The true value of tourism is not in what we can pretend to be, but in what we really are.
