Tuzla became a tourist brand, Majid Imamovic, the director of artificial lakes “Panonika,” told N1 Saturday, adding that right from the beginning of the season on June 7, they received over 3,000 guests.

“Today we expect to host some 10,000 guests. We prepared well for this season and all we need is good weather and all the weather forecasts say we'll have a long and warm summer,” Imamovic said.

According to him, the Central-Bosnian city of Tuzla becomes a truly Mediterranean city in the Summer due to its artificial salt lakes. The lakes themselves consist of three artificial water accumulations made up of unprocessed water from the nearby lake and salt water pumped from Tuzla's underground salt-mines for which Tuzla is known across the world.

Imamvic argues that Tuzla became a tourist brand, but that their main goal is not to set a record number of visitors but to maintain the standard for all their guests.

“This was a devastated wetland area, where people disposed salt uncontrollably, completely destroying this area. The owner of this place is the City of Tuzla, which proclaimed it a protected area, and it's now maintained by the Public Utility Company, which seasonally employs some 170 workers. Our plan was to provide a quality service for a small amount of money,” he concluded.