ABSTRACT
Sarajevo (in Bosnia-Herzegovina) was negatively impacted by a siege that lasted more than 1,000 days between 1992 and 1995. After the war, the city attempted to recover as journalists and early tourists who visited Sarajevo experienced what was considered an open-air museum of tragedy and destruction. Over time, tourism increased, but the city’s landscape remained scarred, with tourism opportunities and visitor attractions aiming to educate visitors about war and conflict in Sarajevo and across the Balkans in the early 1990s. This chapter will focus on narrations of Sarajevo’s landscape and memories of war as presented in newspaper content and promotional websites framed around experiences of being in the destination, to link narratives with critical observational reflection and interpretation. The analysis is framed around three sections: (i) landscapes frozen in the 1990s; (ii) touring the tunnel of survival; and (iii) roses of remembrance. Interpretations and discussion of the content and observations will be guided by theories of landscape, memory and representations of destinations post-conflict. The conclusion will discuss the notion of fading memory in relation to how other destinations have moved beyond memories and imaginations of war, now more than 20 years since the conflict and siege of Sarajevo.
