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How to Find a New Purpose of the Lost Heritage and Attract Tourists

Published on 08/09/2020 (last modified 16/09/2021)

 

University of Zadar organised project Revival focus group, which gathered many tourism professionals who gave their thoughts, knowledge and ideas on revitalising wartime heritage objects – old bunkers that could complete diverse tourist offer in Zadar area. Between those experienced professionals was Iva Bencun, owner of travel agency Feral Tours and co-founder of the Zadar Outdoor Festival, who remembered her first encounter with the bunkers. It was on a party when she was just a teenager, but the size of that fortification and length of its tunnels got stuck in her mind. Since then, she had no contact with the bunkers and because of that she is fascinated by the number of them and their potential in attracting the tourists. Bencun thinks that cultural, heritage and culinary tourism, or even active tourism, are just one of the directions in repurposing these bunkers, which could attract the tourists who are no longer interested in just relaxing and laying on the beach on their vacation.

 

What do stakeholders from tourism sector in Zadar think of the idea of revitalizing bunkers and what kind of content do they want to offer in this lost wartime heritage? We found answers to that in the latest focus group organised by University of Zadar, on which many tourist professionals learned more about wartime heritage while sharing their thoughts, knowledge and experience on how to turn these bunkers into Zadar’s new tourist attractions. One of the participants of that focus group was Iva Bencun, owner of travel agency Feral Tours and co-founder of the Zadar Outdoor Festival, who remembered her only encounter with bunkers and revealed how tourists could be attracted to visit revitalised heritage.  

- I am always surprised at how little we know about our own area. For example, if someone asked me how many bunkers are in Zadar, I would say maybe around 20, because I roughly remember where I saw few of them. However, I am fascinated by the fact that there are 250 of them, and that there's almost nothing that we know or learn about them. To put it simply, something is in our backyard and we don't know almost anything about it – said Bencun, who only after the focus group realised that she attended a party in one of the bunkers while she was in high school or at the beginning of college. Until now, that was her first and only encounter with the bunkers, but she remembers how big that fortification was and how long were its tunnels.

 

 

- There are people who are interested in that kind of things, that are a little different from the classic tourist offer. We will have to see what kind of role and function those bunkers will get in the future. Whether someone decides to present some kind of gastronomic offer inside those bunkers, or there will be entirely historical and cultural contents. Maybe even some kind of active tourism, so that bicycle routes could connect those bunkers – suggests this tourism professional, adding that there’s a lot of possibilities with repurposing of those objects.

- Tourists today, and we have been repeating this for years, are active tourists who want to experience local lifestyle, who want to learn as much as possible about the destination. They are not interested just in relaxing anymore – emphasized Iva Bencun, concluding that variety of contents needs to be offered, so the bunkers will complete that offer in terms of new experiences and learning about history of Zadar.