Back in March Copenhagen Business Academy did a study trip in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The project: Sustainability and Tourism Development: Case of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Highlander Adventures was chosen as a local partner as a practical example for their work. The task for the students was to collect information and analyse Highlander Adventures, our mission, service concept, product development, delivery system, market segment, vision, competences, values and philosophy. Then use the information to make Porters five forces analysis of the industry, make a SWOT analysis, find out how these trips fit the Danish travellers, work on the marketing plan and product development for the Danish market or one specific target segment of the Danish tourists.

We decided to organise four different activities for the group in order to get insight about this from practical example where they could have seen in practice everything we talked about and everything they needed to finish their tasks for the University.

The idea was to do all the activities that we offer: history and culture tourism, dark/war tourism and adventure/hiking tourism.

The activities were:
1. Lecture: “Politics and Society in Bosnia and Herzegovina” and info about Highlander Adventures,
2. City tour of Sarajevo,
3. Siege of Sarajevo tour,
4. Srebrenica tour,
5. Umoljani hiking tour.

These tours basically cover the three segments we offer: memory trips, day trips and adventure trips.

First day we decided to meet for a lecture in a cosy and relaxed atmosphere in a traditional Bosnian café as the students were already tired from their trip to Slovenia. Bosnian coffee, shisha and a small introduction to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Highlander Adventures. The lecture was about economic, social and political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the situation on Bosnian tourist market and general business climate in the country. We also presented Highlander Adventures: who are we, what are our experiences, what is our motivation, our mission, vision, service concept, products, market segment, competences, values, philosophy and goals.

Later we went on a city tour of Sarajevo, seeing all the most important places in the old town and talked about the history and life of the city on the border between east and west. There’s a saying that one hasn’t been in Sarajevo if he doesn't eat ćevapi, so we went for lunch in the best place: Ferhatović.

After lunch, it was time for Siege of Sarajevo tour. We drove through Sniper Alley to Tunnel DB. A place that leaves no one indifferent. After the tunnel, we drove to bobsled track on Trebević, walked over it to the viewpoint above the city. On the way back we stopped at a sniper nest, to see how easy it was to terrorise the city.

Second day was for Srebrenica trip. We used the long drive to talk about history of the last war, in order to get a clear picture of what led to the genocide. In Srebrenica we first went for lunch in a traditional restaurant. This is a very small place, the first one opened after the war, owned and run by a returnee, Omer. We barely squeezed in, but had probably the best meal on whole trip. We ate everything they had.

Later we visited Potočari memorial, and battery factory before watching a documentary on Dutch bat headquarters.

Third day was more relaxing. We went to Bjelašnica mountain, to Umoljani highland village for a short hike to Studeni potok. A lot of unexpected snow that fell last week made us change the plans, but still we enjoyed it very much. Snow fights and sliding down the slopes made up for the lost mileage.

For lunch we visited a hut owned by a resident of Umoljani. We talked about mountain tourism and sustainable development of local community with the owner. Traditional food and great atmosphere made us want to stay here longer.

In the end we walked to Bešlića lake, took some photos, and went back to Sarajevo.

Evening was reserved for shisha and live music.

In the end, students had to create and present to us a business model, an offer for Danish tourists, or a tourist package for Danish market, and give ideas how to improve the business model of Highlander Adventures. We did this after a dinner in one of the best restourants a historical Inat kuća, where after a dinner students made presentations and gave us some amazing ideas, which we will definitely implement, as well as a confirmation of some of our own ideas which we already planned to implement, so the feedback was very beneficial to us.

We would like to thank the teachers Selma and Mette for choosing us, the students for great feedback and awesome ideas which we will certainly implement. You were the beast group ever! It was our great pleasure to work with all of you, we learned a lot, and we hope you did too. We're really looking forward to meeting all of you again.

Special thanks goes to Rebekka, Jasper and Rasmus for their business plan.

We already continued our cooperation and had another group of students from Copenhagen Business Academy in April with a project on sustainability and entrepreneurship. Click here to read about that trip.

How did the students see the trip? Here’s their feedback:

“Of course we have done real-life company cases at school as well, but that cannot compare to what we did in Bosnia & Herzegovina, here we were actually able to use and get a further understanding of all the models and theories we’ve been talking so much about at school, it was also exciting to see them connect to the real world and to feel like a start-up consultant.”

“I care to say that I’ve learned much more in those two weeks than I ever have in two weeks at home; on both, a personal as well as an academic level.”

“However, the trip has at times been tough, we’ve done a lot of work, both in Slovenia and in Bosnia & Herzegovina, no one should believe that a study trip like this is a vacation partly paid for by a school grant. This has in no way been a negative thing though, it helped us get a deeper understanding of the culture and it also helped molding the group into something larger.”

“To try and sum it up, what we did in these 2 weeks cannot even remotely compare to if we had done the same things in school.”

For more information on the trips we did with CPH business:

1. City tour of Sarajevo,
2. Siege of Sarajevo tour,
3. Srebrenica tour,
4. Umoljani hiking tour.

For more photos from this and other trips follow us on Instagram.