The beautiful European winter wonderland set to become a summer holiday hotspot

Resorts in a European mountain range are hoping to attract summer tourists with a change in offerings. The Jahorina and Bjelasnica mountains near Sarajevo in Bosnia have traditionally been snow sport resorts but have said that summer tourism is their “future”.

This push is being undertaken in response to the area no longer getting the level of snow it used to, due to climate change. The Sarajevo tourism board president, Haris Fazlagic, said: “We used to rely on snow, but there is no escaping the fact that snow is now likely to fall and accumulate at altitudes above 2,500 meters and our mountains are simply not that high.” He told the AP that increasing the area’s year-round appeal is “the future of tourism,” but acknowledged that it’s a long-term strategy.

Bosnia is hoping to lure tourists away from nearby seaside holiday spots like Croatia and Montenegro, where temperatures are climbing yearly and there are higher tourism costs and numbers.

The mountains, which hosted the Winter Olympics in 1984, have had several summers with little snow, forcing them to expand offerings. They now offer activities such as hiking, biking, all-vehicle terrain trails and tours, scenic ski lift rides, and more.

Another lure is the lower temperatures. Coastal areas in the region are experiencing increasingly frequent and prolonged heatwaves, with daily temperatures often reaching 40C.

In Jahorina and Bjelasnica, on the other hand, temperatures tend to stay between 24C and 30C in the summer. One visitor, Dusko Kurtovic, said: “The weather here is fantastic- it’s not hot at all.”

There are also far less tourists visiting the region, enticing those looking for a quieter holiday. The popular destination of Dubrovnik had nearly two million overnight stays in the first seven months of 2025, almost double that of the Sarajevo region.

And things are already looking up. Vasilije Knezevic, who leads quad tours of the mountains, said that while the ski season was “bleak” because of the snow shortage, they are “having a fabulous summer so far.”