Arben Nikqi owns a lot of land. His farm has been in the family for several generations, since before his grandfather could remember. He has a menagerie of animals on the farm- twelve cows, dozens of sheep, and a handful of chickens. Between the farm and the restaurant is an orchard, with “up to 350 trees” that provide food. The family has a house down in Peja, where his two kids stay during the school week.
But the one thing he’s the proudest of is a small white certificate in a language that he can barely read. He’s so proud of it that it hangs outside the front door of his restaurant, as the first thing tourists see when they enter. It was issued by a tourism company as a verification of the authentic Kosovar experience that waits inside the building.
“We only use regional ingredients,” it says in small green letters.
“This is very important for us,” Nikqi said in Albanian, through an interpreter. “This is why I keep the cows, to promote products from this region.”
Most of the food at the restaurant is not just regional, it comes from Nikqi’s own farm. Fresh fish are brought uphill from a nearby stream and kept in a large clay tank at the restaurant’s front steps. Fruits and vegetables, including what he estimated as “over 2,000 potatoes,” are grown in the family garden. Next to the garden are three ashen circles in the gravel, where he and his wife prepare flia over an outdoor fire.
The restaurant’s success is partially based on the luck of its location. Nikqi’s village, Shtupeq i Madh, is the first village that tourists pass through on their way into the Rugova Mountains from Peja. And the first building on the road into Shtupeq is Restaurant Bjeshka.
Bjeshka has been open since 2005. Nikqi had always used the restaurant to process the food available on his farm and make a small profit. But the rise of tourism in the last few years has allowed the restaurant to become the main financial support for his extended family as well.
Nikqi’s story of success is not unique in the Peja Municipality, or Kosovo in general. Last year, Kosovo received 83,710 foreign tourists, its highest number ever. More foreign tourists came to Kosovo in the summer of 2016 than in the entirety of 2008. And according to Blerina Batusha Xërxa, who heads the tourism sector of the Swiss NGO Promoting Private Sector Employment, Peja has reaped many of the benefits of the tourism boom.
“A lot of people are coming just to visit the Rugova Mountains,” she said. “For most people, if they want to go to mountains, they want to go for the pleasure. The mountains are quite virgin here, not like the Alps.”
The numbers back up Xërxa’s claim. After Pristina, the Peja region has the most tourists of any municipality. About 15 percent of all tourists to Kosovo come through the municipality, and the Rugova Mountains seem to be a major reason.
According to Blerta Begolli, head of the Tourism Information Office in Peja, more than 10,000 tourists came to Peja in 2016. Government data puts the number closer to 12,500, more than double the 5,700 tourists that came in 2014.
Begolli said the single biggest months for tourism are June and September.
“This is because we can do more hiking in these months. In the summer, it gets so hot that people cannot go on hikes.”
Between the farm and the restaurant, Nikqi stays busy during the summer. He often dresses more like a restaurant owner than a farmer. His black shoes and silver belt buckle are perfectly shined. He doesn’t even have the sleeves rolled up on his dress shirt as he crosses his field. But his face is worn from over 50 years in the mountains and his command of the land is clear.
“If you want to do this job,” he explained, “you do it until September. If you want to work, you can do work. Now it’s technology and that is the job.”
The Peja Tourism Office works closely with many of the hotels, restaurants, and tour companies in the region. Their website recommends nineteen Kosovar businesses throughout the mountains, including Restaurant Bjeshka.
The company that certified the restaurant, Peaks of the Balkans, opened in 2013 and leads tours to all three countries (Kosovo, Albania and Montenegro) along the Rugova Mountains.
Another business that works with the Peja Tourism Office is Hotel Rudi. Ylber Rudi opened the hotel in 1992, making it the first guest house in Bogë. Recently, the city has become the main skiing destination in the Rugova Mountains and attracted more tourists and companies.
“We have more people now than when we started,” Rudi said.“And we hope for more and more.”
There are clear economic reasons for the new businesses, but Xërxa credited the culture of hospitality as well.
“They cannot always put a price on what they offer. They are very nice and giving, this is what distinguishes people here.”
She also cited a famous quote from the Kanun saying the guest “shall be welcomed with bread, salt, and heart.” Albanians started living by those rules in the 14th century, and their spirit continues to the modern tourism industry.
The spirit of the Nikqi farm captures that older version of the region. The only technology he has on the farm is an old tractor and a milking machine for the cows. He stays in the mountains during the winter to manage everything, which Begolli found unusual for a farmer.
“Most farmers come down to the city during the winter,” she said.
Tourism numbers are lower during the winter months and the farms tend to struggle as well. And the family could stay at their house in Peja. But too many people depend on Restaurant Bjeshka for it to close during the winter.
The Nikqi family farm has recently become the sole family business. “My family and brothers and their families and my father all live from these cows,” Nikqi said. “All of them are unemployed so they all survive from these incomes.”
The extended family does what it can to help the restaurant. Arben’s 13-year old son, Arianit, is helping this day after his uncle gave him a ride up after school.
“It’s unusual to be here,” Arianit said through an interpreter,“because school is primary. If it is possible because of transport to come up I will. Otherwise, it’s only Saturday and Sunday.”
Now that the school year is over, he and his sister will be doing a lot more work there.
Rudi has also felt the economic pressure. There are no guests at the Hotel Rudi right now. A group of Germans is scheduled to arrive soon, but his biggest hope is from the diaspora.
“This year is different. We want a lot of people from the diaspora to come as guests and stay here.”
Xërxa sees a lot of family businesses in the region. Her group, PPSE, works to promote businesses and enterprises in Kosovo. While they try to promote women in business and expand business opportunities to everyone, they aren’t against the family model that the Nikqi’s follow.
“We are happy as long as there is employment, even if it’s just family members,” said Xërxa.
While the tourism increase helps, many small farms and families are still struggling. “In Rugova before,” Arben remembered, “there was a person who had over three thousand sheep. Now it’s maximum one hundred. There is not a person or family that has more than a hundred sheep.”
Arben doesn’t know how long his children will keep working with him. They frequently come to help at the restaurant now. But his daughter is 17, his son 13, and both plan to eventually leave Peja to attend a university. It’s a different kind of life than Arben led, but one he can accept for them.
“We had to deal with the farm because we had a hard life. This is only way to live in the mountains. Otherwise, we would like to live as gentlemen.”
(Brennen Kauffman is a reporting intern at KosovaLive this summer in cooperation with Miami University in the United States)
