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Serbian flags are waving loosely in the pouring rain. They line the main street of the Kosovo village of Gracanica, a Serbian enclave just a few kilometers from the capital Pristina. In the young country where war still raged 25 years ago, Swiss Andreas Wormser (65) has been running a hotel since 2013. And when Blick visited him, he hadn’t had much success, as he himself admitted.
“Unfortunately, it’s a nice hotel in the Serbian region,” says the taxi driver Egzon (23) when he stops at Wormser’s Hotel Gracanica. Egzon lost a dozen relatives in the Kosovo war. He talks about it as if he were there himself. For Kosovars, whether Serbs or Albanians, the wounds of the conflict have never fully healed. To this day, they live next to each other rather than each other.
Albanians mostly stay away
Swiss immigrant Wormser has to learn the hard way. In the constant rain that characterizes the Kosovo summer until now, the ecological pool of the boutique hotel has remained untouched. However, if you think that the guests stay in the comfortable foyer, you are wrong. Except for himself and his staff, the hotel is almost empty. Four of the 15 rooms are occupied. A Serbian wedding couple looks a little lost outside, smiling bravely into the photographer’s lens despite the bad weather. “They’re just here for the photos, they’re celebrating elsewhere,” Wormser says.
If you ask around the village, you will immediately realize that the hotel-restaurant, which differs significantly from the rest of the region in terms of architecture and price, is too expensive for local Serbs. But that’s not all, Albanian customers are rarely guests. To date, they do not voluntarily travel to Serbian territory. Foreign and local tour operators prefer to work with hotels in Albanian-dominated regions.
Even tourists and staff from the international community tend to stay away this year. “Any bad news from the north is disrupting our business. Everything is peaceful here,” Wormser says. Serbia detained three Kosovo police officers in the disputed border area 100 kilometers north of Gracanica when Blick visited him. Pristina talks about a kidnapping, Belgrade talks about illegal possession of weapons by Kosovars.
Working on the pump
For Swiss Abroad’s operation, the uncertain situation in the country becomes a risk of bankruptcy. Wormser does not hide the fact that he drew the breakeven point only a few months before the corona pandemic. His pension fund and loans from his wife and sister keep the hotel afloat. Does Wormser sometimes regret opening the hotel? “It was a mistake, but it would have been a shame if I hadn’t,” Wormser says.
Despite all the difficulties: Wormser proudly describes the rare days when Serbian and Albanian guests lay side by side in the sun by the pool. Then his optimism about the past takes effect. Like in 2008, when Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia and then EDA employee Wormser came up with the idea of a multi-ethnic hotel. In this way, he wanted to contribute to the peaceful coexistence of the different peoples of Kosovo.
It worked well in the early years. Serbs, Albanians and Roma worked hand in hand in Wormser’s company. The hardening fronts between Serbia and Kosovo are now reflected in the search for personnel. “Unlike the last Yugoslav generation, young people hardly speak the other’s language,” Wormser says. For this reason, although the youth unemployment rate is 52 percent, Albanians cannot find workers.
goodbye after 20 years
Namely, hotel manager Lidija Tokic Fazliji (35), who, as the daughter of a Serbian and an Albanian, keeps Wormser’s old vision alive. He’s also not very optimistic about the future: “People here are afraid of the end,” she says. She doesn’t give detailed information about the ending.
Empty beds, difficulties in finding staff, and a country that can’t get out of crisis mode: “It’s exhausting,” says Andreas Wormser, who is slowly saying goodbye after spending twenty years in Kosovo. Even Tokic Fazliji says: “We feel a little sorry for Andreas. He wanted to make a difference and sacrificed a lot for it.”
At the end of 2024, Wormser wants to transfer the entire hotel to Tokic Fazliji and retire to his wife in Germany – until recently he could not imagine living in Kosovo, which was still dominated by men. Above all, Wormser has a message for its citizens: “The country continues to be fascinating. Dear Swiss, come to Kosovo.”
Source :Blick
I’m Tim David and I work as an author for 24 Instant News, covering the Market section. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism, my mission is to provide accurate, timely and insightful news coverage that helps our readers stay informed about the latest trends in the market. My writing style is focused on making complex economic topics easy to understand for everyone.
