This is part of Global Sounds, a collection of stories spotlighting the music trends forging connections in 2024.
In 2004, four years before Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, 16-year-old Patrik Ukiq decided to throw a party. Born and raised in the capital of Pristina, he had recently discovered house and electronic music after an older cousin, who had been immersed in the UK rave scene, brought back a couple of CDs. Those led him to online forums, where techno heads from all over the world were swapping notes on new releases and foreign DJs, and eventually, to a harebrained idea: Ukiq would fly Felipe, a well known DJ, over from Vienna to perform in Kosovo—a rare thing to happen due to post-war red tape at the border; even more so for a teenager to be the one orchestrating it. “I wasn’t even old enough for the club that I had booked him at. When I met this guy at the airport he didn’t want anything to do with me,” says Ukiq, who hadn’t revealed his age when booking the DJ. “But [I got into the club] and he ended up playing into the early hours of the morning. I was so happy. That’s when I thought, ‘this is my sound.’”
It’s a stifling June night in Pristina when I meet up with Ukiq, now 36 and a certified charmer, outside his bar Servis Fantazia. It’s a low-lit spot with a purple neon glow and the DJ booth is packed with vinyl. Just down the street, giant screens blasting the Euro soccer championships dominate Mother Teresa Boulevard—a leafy pedestrianized avenue lined with cafes that cuts through the center of town—and all around us young Kosovars are gathering in groups with anticipation for the night ahead, sipping on cold bottles of cheap Peja beer and leaning in close to light each other’s cigarettes. The trance-y, heavy thud of techno pounds out of the Servis soundsystem. Just a few days before, the city had marked 25 years since the end of the Kosovo War—and there is a sense of possibility in the air.
It’s been a landmark year for Kosovo. In addition to honoring the 25th anniversary, 2024 saw the 16-year-old nation join Europe’s Schengen Zone (after years of false starts), a generation-defining moment that means Kosovar passport holders can now travel freely around the European Union without a visa—effectively changing the lives of a generation who have not been able to move around their own continent with ease. At the Pristina airport, there are just as many Kosovars getting ready to travel out of the country as there are welcoming others in, a sight that would have been almost unimaginable just nine months ago. “A lot of people have never traveled beyond Macedonia before. Everyone is excited. In January, we all had our flights booked,” says Ukiq. “We’ve been very isolated.”
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“Hey mate!” a cyclist called to us in an Australian accent as he pedaled by on the rocky dirt road that serves as the main street of the village of Theth deep in Albania’s Dinaric Alps. Along with my friend and travel companion, Dave, I had not seen another bikepacker in four days.
Just as we experience a new place through its flavors—the bite of a piping hot empanada, a fiery sip of rice wine—or by clapping eyes on a dramatic landscape, finally seen in person, we also get to hear it. There are the atmospheric noises, like the blare of a taxi horn on New York City’s streets or the gentle crash of the Pacific on Tahiti’s shores, that first flood our senses. But through the rattle of a jazz bar, or the salsa shoes tapping on a dance floor, a destination can present itself to the world, telling stories that can’t be put into words alone.
Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett believes the push to reimagine Caribbean Tourism is key to ensuring the resilience of the industry. Speaking at the Council of Ministers during the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s (CTO) Caribbean Week in New York on Tuesday June 18, Minister Bartlett expressed his support for implementing changes that will benefit the region.
On the margins of the Resilience and Innovation Summit now underway in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, met with senior representatives of leading global sustainable development firm, Chemonics International, in a bid to forge a major partnership for the upcoming Global Tourism Resilience Day in 2025.
The second edition of Wings of Change Focus Africa aims to strengthen African aviation’s economic and social contributions, focusing on enhancing safety, security, and sustainability in Johannesburg on July 2-3, 2024.
The Bahamas and St Lucia were named as winners of Caribbean Destination Resilience Awards at the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association’s (CHTA) 2024 Caribbean Travel Marketplace in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
‘Do you ever get seasick?” Timm Schirmer, a 27-year-old DJ with a fabulous blond moustache, asks me shortly before we board the Techno Train. “When you’re dancing on the train it can feel like you’re at sea, because you can’t always see that you’re moving.” Worryingly, I have indeed spent many a past holiday retching on boats. But Timm’s question comes after I’ve paid €100 for a non-refundable ticket for what social media suggests is the most intense train ride in Europe. I knew it wouldn’t be plain sailing.
Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, is set to depart the island to participate in Eco-Canada’s Sustainable Blue Economy Summit 2024 in Halifax, Canada, on Tuesday, March 19, 2024. Minister Bartlett will be a featured speaker and thought leader at the summit, highlighting the critical importance of the blue economy to building tourism resilience and sustainability.