The Transformation of Kosovar Holidays between Socialism, War and Migration. A Biographical Approach

Abstract

Abstract This paper studies the transformative character of tourism and travel for a small, but multi-facetted example: Kosovo is a post-socialist transformation society and a post-war country in the process of nation building, a developing country within Europe and a transnational migration society. With quantitative data being unreliable in such contexts, an exemplary, biographical study allows an analysis of cross-system transformations and continuities. Based on narrative interviews, the paper studies travel patterns and narratives of an Albanian woman (anonymized here as Zana Bajrami) from socialist rural Yugoslavia in the 1970s to migratory Europe in the 2000s. After a general introduction, the paper considers public and private tourism in Yugoslavia first, before focusing on the impact of migration on tourist behavior. In trying to contextualize an individual example, it also explores the potential of a biographical approach in tourism research.