FINDINGS

Survey Results

The survey responses provide a broad overview of residents’ attitudes toward types of tourism in Mostar as well as perceptions of social outcomes specific to the Red Bull event, setting a stage of general understanding for the interviews to explore themes in greater depth. The survey’s tourism-focused questions helped establish a baseline for understanding how residents perceive hosting visitors, broadly, and provided a comparison between sport event tourism and other types of tourism development. The tourism items (Table 2) revealed overall favorable impressions of tourism in Mostar, including support for tourism pertaining to large sports events (M = 6.11; SD = 1.31; 1-7 Likert-type scale). Tourism pertaining to the city’s past 30 year’s history was least favored overall (M = 5.33; SD = 1.88).

Table 2 – Support for specific types of tourism development and promotion in Mostar and the surrounding region

Note: The Likert-type response scale (1 to 7) was presented with the following guidelines: 1 = extremely unsupportive, 2 = very unsupportive, 3 = somewhat unsupportive, 4 = neither supportive nor unsupportive, 5 = somewhat supportive, 6 = very supportive, 7 = extremely supportive. Items appear as they did on the survey instrument (pre-translation). Survey instrument asked: “On a scale of 1 to 7, please indicate how supportive you are of tourism development in Mostar and its surrounding region focused on:…”

Theoretical Framework and Methodological Approach

Table 3 presents responses to the questions pertaining to community impacts of the sport event. Overall, respondents perceived the event positively, with mean scores between 6 and 7 (“strongly agree” and “very strongly agree”). The highest-scored item was “the event enhances community pride,” with a mean score of 6.45. Respondents also expressed strong agreement for the event’s ability to enhance the sense of being a part of a community, provide an incentive for the preservation of local culture, and reinforce community spirit.

Table 3 – Resident perceptions of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series event, by mean score

Note: The Likert-type response scale (1 to 7) was presented with the following guidelines: 1 = very strongly disagree, 2 = strongly disagree, 3 = somewhat disagree, 4 = neither agree nor disagree, 5 = somewhat agree, 6 = strongly agree, 7 = very strongly agree. Statements appears as they did on the survey instrument (pre-translation). Survey instrument asked (pre-translation): “On a scale of 1 to 7, please indicate how much you agree with the following statement about the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series event in Mostar.”

Theoretical Framework and Methodological Approach

Interview Findings

Overview

The 14 participants had varying levels of engagement with the event, but all had at least seen clips on TV or the internet and were familiar with the event (Table 1). Although geographical delineations within the interview sample seemed to suggest some differences between the city’s subpopulations in terms of engagement with the event, perceptions of the event were overall positive across all participants. The researchers identified four dominant themes pertaining to community event impacts: positive influences upon the city’s recovering image and identity, communal appeal, event production and organizational strengths, and connections to local heritage and culture. These themes collectively imply positive social impacts in terms of social cohesion and collective pride.

City Image and Identity

External Perceptions. Mostar’s war-blighted reputation created the contextual backdrop for understanding the impacts of tourism and events. Aldin, who works as a guide for international students, described how Bosnia and Herzegovina is commonly perceived:

The general image of us in the world is awful. That’s my opinion…Everyone who sees Bosnia on the news, probably the first images are, like, war or grenades, smoke, destroyed buildings, and things like that. But the true image is completely the opposite.

Mirjana, a student, was of the opinion that tourists have been “very much drawn to the situation or the stigma around the city,” specifically mentioning “the history, the poor people, the problems” and “the post-war situation and how everything looks.” Echoing Aldin, Eva, a saleswoman from West Mostar, expressed hopes that tourists would leave Mostar with a “vision of some kind of modern version of this country,” overriding preconceived notions.

Tourism and Internal Attitudes. In the interviews, it became clear that the topic of tourism was inseparable from the topic of community development in Mostar. In addition to the ways tourism can help extinguish external stigmas, participants frequently expressed how it impacted residents’ own attitudes. For Tarik, who worked in hospitality, seeing tourists in Mostar equaled a feeling of progress: “it makes you feel like you are there, you are on the map, and you are important.” Dragica, an accountant in her thirties, was hopeful that “if tourists come, we can forget all those bad things from the past.” In Aldin’s mind, tourism and international events helped to bring an internal change of attitudes to Mostar:

Maybe we would be more aggressive, more mentally unsatisfied, or maybe we would be more ‘in the box’ if we were here only with ourselves. But being visited by a lot of people from different countries, it has to open your views, right? That’s a good way of mind-changing, in a good way, right?

Perceptions of Mostar’s Old Bridge provided indication of this attitudinal change. Mirjana explained that many Mostar residents “actually think of the Old Bridge as the divider and not the thing that connects two sides.” Aldin, who had a mixed-ethnicity vantage point, believed a wider range of residents had more recently been expressing pride in the Old Bridge and it’s neighborhood:

After the war, Mostar was split between Muslims and Croatians… Somehow Croatians all the time rejected to accept this part of the town as their own. Nowadays, it’s quite different…Someone who’s Croatian, speaking about Mostar, nowadays he will mention the Old Town. He will say, ‘this is the Old Town, Old Bridge, from my city.’ And he will speak about it proudly.

This sentiment was reflected in Dragica’s comments: from her Croat perspective the Old Bridge was “only one way of representing Mostar,” yet it was “definitely the main thing that represents Mostar as a city, so the tourists first need to go there.”

Sport Event Impacts Upon Place Perceptions. The interview series did not begin with the topic of the Red Bull event, so the topic was able to emerge organically in the conversations before being prompted. Participants described the event using words like “amazing” (Aldin), and often brought it up as the key example of an event that had helped to transform the city’s image. In an opinion echoed by others, Lana stated that “Red Bull has brought to this city so much publicity,” and she “like[d] seeing our city being presented in the world.” For many participants, the event provided a clear source of pride arising from Mostar’s backdrop of hardship and stigma. Alma, a mother in her thirties, explained that the event’s international publicity made her feel like “all of the world, in that weekend, knows about Mostar and about Bosnia.” Tarik saw the other tour stops as being “elite places,” stating, “I think we are privileged to be on this world tour.” For Amin, a local athlete, observing so many visitors during the event provided him with a sense of feeling “fulfilled.” Vedad had a similar response: “afterwards, I felt proud of my city, that my – I mean our – bridge was elected as one of the jumping spots for Red Bull Cliff Diving.” Ivana, too, said that she felt “proud,” after seeing Red Bull’s high-quality video clips online.

Communal Appeal of Sport Event

Overall, participants felt very positively toward the event, noting that it brought an upbeat, lively energy to the city. To Esma, a student, the event was “a 100% positive thing” for Mostar. Ivana, a tour guide, believed that the event “shows the best of Mostar.” The two potential deterrents to event attendance that participants mentioned were environmental factors: the summer heat (Karlo, Lucija, Mirjana, Tarik) and crowding (Karlo, Lucija, Mirjana, Tarik, Ivana, Vedad). However, the crowding had some positive implications, as Ivana explained why she thought the event was a positive way to experience Mostar: “It’s all people. Talking and crowded and happy and everything is full.” Lana similarly stated: “we see the city transform into a cosmopolitan sort of place. It’s dangerous, and [there’s the] music fest throughout the old city. So of course, everyone likes these effects of it.” For Dragica, the event inspired broad curiosity amongst residents: “People want to see what is happening.”

The common attitude that the event was available to everyone was articulated by Eva, who suggested that it provided a more inclusive opportunity to bring people together at the Old Bridge:

I think [the event] is great because it’s a combination of history, of the art of the bridge, of the action that comes from jumping, of an international event, and because it represents the West and the East of Mostar. A lot of people come together that usually don’t like each other [laughs] because of the politics. So, it’s great that it has something to unite them…Usually the Old Bridge represents the East side, but maybe because of the event it’s not so easily noticeable. I think that’s a really positive thing.

Several participants noted that the weekend-long event’s varied attractions helped to garner interest from a broader range of residents. Teasingly, Dragica said of herself and her sister: “she will go to the party and I will go to the jumping.” For Tarik, the event weekend offered people variety as well as a sense of escapism:

There is so much going on. Wherever you turn, there is a concert here, there is a concert there, there’s a street performance there…There is always something that takes your mind away.

However, Tarik mentioned that for him, the competition was “too much adrenaline” (“it’s Red Bull, you know how it is,” he explained) given his adrenaline-laden wartime childhood in Mostar – providing a reminder of how the city’s dark history can arise in seemingly benign contexts.

Perceptions of Sport Event Production

Participants generally found the event production (operations and logistics, promotion, and attendee experience) to be both impressive and inspiring. Mirjana reflected upon the city’s transformation during the event:

It almost looks like it’s not Mostar, like it’s not our city, like it’s somewhere else, somewhere bigger, because it’s very professional and all the foreign people are there, and everybody is very, I don’t know, organized, and everything looks good on TV.

To Aldin, the event production was “a perfect example for our authorities of how to make something in a proper way.” He hoped that this event could inspire and guide future community productions, but was unsure whether this would be possible.

Several participants, including Tarik, expressed perceptions of mutual respect between the city and the event: “Mostar likes Red Bull and I believe that Red Bull likes Mostar, so I believe that we have good relationship with each other.” He elaborated further:

I don’t think that there are any negative aspects because they’re actually in compliance with everything. They don’t pollute. They don’t do any harm…They make the city great for a few days, greater…because there are a lot of stands, there are a lot of activities. There are a lot of opportunities. They hire local people for doing certain jobs and they help the community in this way.

Attuned to the athletes’ experience, Amin observed that “the residents here and the tourists here have given [the divers] so much love… and [the athletes] were in love with the city, in love with the locals, and the tourists too.” Lana and Tarik both noted that one of the athletes had personally cleaned up the event’s beach area from litter, which had caught local attention.

Some participants noted room for improvement for the event’s production. Karlo, who studied tourism at the university, provided a more critical perspective of the event:

It’s a great opportunity, but it kind of feels poorly organized, like they didn’t use the area around the bridge as well as they could have… It’s a good starting point, but I think they could turn it into a great festival. Such as more parties, playing games, stuff like that.

Similarly, Vedad, another student with interest in regional planning, thought that the event organizers could do more to encourage visitors to explore different parts of Mostar, as it currently “brings people just to one place.” These comments illustrate some ways the event might be leveraged to make even greater community impacts.

The interviews commonly addressed the importance of having a well-known, outside (i.e., external to the Bosnian or former Yugoslavian region) event organizing body in creating both a more esteemed and a more inclusive event. Red Bull’s positioning helped to establish trust within the community and within visitors, because, as Alma stated, “Red Bull knows all of the world; everybody knows Red Bull.people around here can be kind of, um, stubborn and principled and stuff like that. And someone who comes from the outside doesn’t have the same view of things.” Aldin, too, saw this contrast clearly: “[Red Bull] did more than our authorities did in the last 20 years. They did in one event,” he stated, expressing frustration that local authorities didn’t seem able to cooperative sufficiently to achieve something like this themselves.

Connections to Local Heritage and Culture

Widely, interview participants appreciated how the event was able to reflect and highlight unique aspects of their city and culture, both past and present. In addition to the historic setting, the coinciding music festival featured regional acts, and the live competition’s announcers spoke mainly in the local language. To Katarina, a teacher from Western Mostar, the Red Bull event provided attendees with a taste of “everything” Mostar: “You see Stari Most, you see the people in Mostar, you can eat cevapi, and have fun.” She explained that the event’s diving focus made her feel proud because most cities “have basketball, soccer…But we have jumping, and we are different, I think,” she said, laughing. Esma reflected upon televised interviews she had seen, in which athletes spoke about how the bridge venue presented a particularly meaningful setting: “it’s much more for them, even for them…It presents for them a story of a monument.” For visitors, residents, and event participants alike, local history and heritage seemed to play an important role in the experience of the event.

Several participants noted that the event helped to build upon local tradition and carry it into the future, providing an even greater feeling of pride for locals. Amin expressed that he felt “proud” because Red Bull “chose us, they chose the city, and especially the bridge, and [they] add on to the history that we already have.” He described the relationship between the Red Bull event and Mostar as a “win-win situation.” Vedad expressed similar feelings:

I think [the event] emphasizes the tradition of diving into the Neretva River from the bridge. Diving here is all about diving from heights. It is an interesting combination, from the tradition that we have here in Mostar and then combining it with the cliff diving of Red Bull. I think that’s cool about it.

For Aldin, a key aspect of the event’s success was that it retained local character: “They basically adapted Red Bull to Mostar, not vice versa,” he posited.

Building Upon Local Tradition. Several participants expressed appreciation for how this event built upon the local bridge diving tradition and turned it into something even more exciting and impressive. Alma expressed that her initial thoughts were, “Finally! This thing is getting on some high level!” She further explained that “because it is Red Bull, they are athletes, they are not just ‘jumpers,’ they are much more than that. Everything is a show.” In Vedad’s opinion, “Everything is better than it used to be from the traditional jumping on the bridge because Red Bull invested in the cliff diving.” Lana appreciated how the Red Bull event brought more stylistic and geographic diversity: “The Red Bull event is much more fun because of the things [maneuvers] they do. Plus, the whole crew is international. Over here [for traditional jumping], most of the people are local, or from former Yugoslavia…plus they do only two sorts of jumps.” Participants provided indication that the Red Bull event had begun to become interwoven with the city’s own heritage: “it’s becoming a little bit of a tradition,” Esma mused.

Local Context of Sports. The broader social context of sports in Mostar arose in a few of the interviews (Mirjana, Lucija, Aldin). Mirjana explained that the city currently has two football teams, each with very active fan clubs—one based in East Mostar and the other in West Mostar. The teams’ respective supporters have been known to get in fights, especially on game days. In Mirjana’s perspective, “in America, [sports] all seem very fun and positive, and the sports make everybody excited. But here, it’s just scary.” Aldin reflected that this situation had improved in recent years, but affiliation with the city’s sports teams remained one of the more common and obvious ways for residents to assert their ethnic/religious identities.

In contrast, the Red Bull event provided Mostarians with a competitive sport context based around awe, excitement, and respect. Dragica said she found the sport “fascinating” because “I admire those people who jump, who have courage, because I couldn’t!” For Lana, this equated to a unique spectator experience: “what they’re doing up there it’s so incredible … like you just live it. You look at them, the energy.” Karlo felt that the Red Bull event “inspires people.” However, he felt that there might be a missed opportunity in terms of local youth engagement: “I think that should be a bigger focus, since younger generations are the future, and Bosnia and Herzegovina has a lot of potential in that department, especially for extreme sports.” To him, the “sports scene” in Bosnia and Herzegovina was currently underdeveloped. “If this could get more people to get active,” he explained, “it’d be great both for Bosnia and Herzegovina and in general for sport.” Karlo recalled that his little brother had seen the competition and said “I want to do that!” adding that “When I was a child, I wanted to do all sorts of stuff like that, but I wasn’t anywhere you could actually do it,” as sports facilities and programs had been lacking for him in West Mostar.