A total of 573,227 tourists have visited Bosnia and Herzegovina’s (BiH’s) capital Sarajevo during 2018, recording an 18.8 percent increase year-on-year, Institute for Informatics and Statistics of Canton Sarajevo (ZISKS) stated on Saturday.
From Jan. to Dec. 2018, a total of 1,189,159 overnight stays was recorded by the Institute, recording a 22.9 percent increase year-on-year.
There was an increase in the number of domestic tourist arrivals by 24.2 percent or 74, 342 tourists, and the increase in number of overnight stays by 24.8 percent or 128, 171 overnight stays.
When it comes to the structure of total tourist arrivals in Sarajevo, 87.0 percent of arrivals were realized by foreign tourists.
Statistics show that 515,285 tourists stayed at hotels, accounting for 89.9 percent of the total number of tourists, and 1,021,452 overnight stays or 85.9 percent of the total number of overnight stays were realized in hotels.
An increase in 2018 was recorded in number of new hotels, hotel rooms and beds.
“The number of accommodation objects is 350. The total number of rooms is 6,091, recording an increase of 12.4 percent, and number of beds is 13,710, an increase of 15.9 percent year-on-year,” ZIKS stated in a report.
In the year 2018, a total of 143 new objects were opened, of which 4 are hotels;2 hotels in categorization of 5 starts and 2 hotels with four stars, 2 aparthotels with four stars, and objects in the category of other accommodation.
Sarajevo was visited by tourists from 167 countries with an average length of stay of 2,1 days.
Tourists who visited Sarajevo mostly come from Turkey, Croatia, China, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Slovenia, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Serbia, the United States of America (USA) and Italy.
“The absolute record in 2018 was made by tourists from China, who are third in number of arrivals and sixth in terms of number of overnight stays. Chinese tourists realized an increase of 118.7 percent in arrivals and 114.5 percent of overnight stays year-on-year.”
Tourism in BiH is a fast-growing sector making up an important part of the country’s economy. In recent years, BiH has seen a stable growth in the number of foreign tourists, showing great potential for the future.
(Source: Xinhua, Sarajevo Times)
