The Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina reached a decision that all foreigners entering the country must have BAM 150 per day for their planned stay in the country.
The measure, which is officially adopted every year, has been in force for a while, and the prescribed amount has not been changed in years.
In the period from January – November last year, a total of 1,544,452 tourist arrivals in Bosnia-Herzegovina was recorded, which represent the increase by 12.0% and 3,178,416 overnight stays which is increased by 10.7% as compared to the same period of 2018.
The number of domestic tourist nights increased by 8.7% and the number of foreign tourist nights increased by 11.5% as compared to the same period of 2018.
Domestic tourist’s share of a total number of overnight stays was 27.6% and foreign tourists’ share was 72.4%.
Concerning the structure of foreign overnight stays, most of them (63.0%) were realized by tourists from Croatia (12.2%), Serbia (8.2%), Saudi Arabia (6.8%), China and Slovenia (each 5.2%), Germany and Italy (each 5.0%), Turkey (4.7%), United Arab Emirates (3.9%), Poland (3.8%) and USA (3.0%). Tourists from other countries realized 37.0% of overnight stays.
Regarding the average detention of foreign tourist stays, on the first place comes Malta with average stay of 4.7 nights, Kuwait with 3.4 nights, Ireland with 3.2 nights and Island with 3.0 nights.
According to the type of accommodation facility, the highest number of nights was recorded in Hotels and similar accommodation with a share of 92.3%, according to BiH’s Agency for Statistics.
A total of 665.489 tourist visits was recorded last year in Canton Sarajevo, which is up by 16.8 percent compared to the same period in 2018. Also, tourists recorded 1.446.534 overnight stays, which is 22.8 percent more than in 2018.
Of the total number of tourists that visited the Canton Sarajevo in 2019, 87 percent were foreign nationals and 13 percent were domestic tourists. Of the total number of overnight stays, 88.5 percent were foreign tourists and 11.5 percent domestic.
Most tourists came from China (10 percent), Croatia (9 percent), Turkey (7.7 percent), Saudi Arabia (7 percent), United Arab Emirates (3.9 percent), Germany, Slovenia, Serbia, USA and Italy.
The highest increase in the number of arrivals compared to the previous year was recorded by tourists from Saudi Arabia, with an increase of arrivals of 107.4 percent, the second is Egypt, an increase of arrivals of 92.9 percent and third is China, with an increase of arrivals of 87.4 percent.
The highest increase in number of overnight stays compared to the previous year was recorded by tourists from China, with an increase by 136.9 percent, Saudi Arabia, with an increase in overnight stays by 94.6 percent, Egypt (81.0 percent), Hungary (64.6 percent) and Italy (54.4 percent).
Tourists from 174 countries visited the Sarajevo Canton in 2019, staying an average of 2.2 nights.