MZ Osova built a recreation and rest facility in a rural setting between Žepče and Zavidovići

Why Osova - a peaceful environment as value

Osova is located in an area with a rare advantage in regional tourism: it is far enough from both Žepče and Zavidovići to step out of urban bustle, but close enough that residents of both cities can arrive by car in a short time. It is a point on the map offering what cities do not have - silence, nature, greenery, space to breathe.

MZ Osova recognised that this value is not just idealistic. As the application noted, escape from stress, work, and crowds is increasingly showing itself as a pronounced need of society, the local community, and people from the near and wider surroundings.

In other words, there is a market - people tired of their daily routine and looking for a place to spend a weekend or a day off with their family.

What was specifically built

The project envisaged the construction of a recreation and rest facility that:

• Serves for gatherings of adults and children, with various content
• Stands available for rent during weekdays and weekends
• Offers cooling and peace in nature in summer
• Enables enjoyment of winter activities in winter (snow, recreation, traditional activities)
• Represents the first point of this kind in the immediate surroundings

The problem the project solves - a gap in the offer

The application provided a concrete figure that justifies the whole investment: the nearest resort of similar content is only about five kilometres away, and a need emerged to build a facility that would become a real tourist attraction in a short time.

Five kilometres is not much in absolute terms, but in tourism every point has its own circle of attractiveness. When an attractive content appears in one community, it does not cannibalise the existing one but fills the circle of visitors who until then had no reason to stop by in that direction. Osova thus became a new checkpoint location in the region, not competition to others.

Readiness - in a concrete phase

The project was not just an idea on paper:

• The conceptual design - prepared
• The main project - was in preparation
• Works on the site - earth works carried out, access road secured, utility connections, drainage and terrain levelling completed

In other words, when support arrived, the facility entered the construction phase itself, not a new preparation phase.

Target audience

• Families with children from Žepče and Zavidovići - working weekends and holidays
• Team-building groups - companies seeking a place outside the city for an internal event
• Celebrations and events - birthdays, anniversaries, gatherings
• Transit tourists - visitors to the region looking for quieter accommodation options
• Local population - regular use and the possibility of organising activities

Sustainability

Sustainability was built on two foundations:

• Market foundation - renting the facility generates income enabling self-sustaining operation, without a constant need for subsidies
• Geographical foundation - the location is sufficiently isolated to have its own identity, yet close enough to large centres to have stable demand

The combination of these two foundations means the project has no horizon of one season, it has a horizon of several decades, which also justifies the initial investment.

The message of the project

Not every tourism project needs to be a large attraction with a brand. Sometimes it is enough to recognise a real need of one's neighbours and offer it to them in a form that did not previously exist.

With this project, Osova did not create a new kind of tourism - it returned to the community a facility every neighbourhood once took for granted: a place where families gather, where birthdays are celebrated, where children run in the grass on Saturdays. It is the type of investment that does not measure effect in the number of overnight stays but in the number of happy afternoons.