In the first three months of this year, a total of 17,610 tourist arrivals were made in the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, with 31,523 overnight stays, which is about 10 percent more than last year.
“We hope, judging by the reports from our destinations, that we will have a growth in tourist indicators of at least 10 percent for the six-month period,” said Ramiz Bašić, senior expert associate at the Tourist Board of Herzegovina Neretva Canton (HNK), in an interview for Fena.
This year, as in previous years, the HNK was most often visited by tourists from the countries of the region (Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia), then from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and from the EU countries (Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia , Hungary).
In the mentioned period, domestic guests had 8,548 arrivals and 14,647 overnight stays, and foreign guests had 9,062 arrivals and 16,876 overnight stays, which is an increase of 36 percent compared to the same period last year.
As for Mostar, Bašić says that the city on the Neretva is characterized by city tourism, which is characterized by a relatively short stay in the city, so tourists in Mostar spend up to 2.5 nights on average.
On the other hand, one-day visitors most often stay in Mostar for less than 8 hours (91%), and on average slightly less than 5 hours. One-day visitors from Croatia stay the longest (5 hours on average).
“Our research so far has shown that one-day visitors to Mostar spend an average of 27 euros, of which 16 euros are spent on shopping, while they spend an average of 11 euros on catering services,” says a senior expert associate at the Tourist Board of HNK.
In contrast to them, guests who spend the night in Mostar spend an average of 78 euros per person, of which they spend the most on accommodation expenses (58% or an average of 46 euros per day), and considerable expenses are also spent on purchasing and catering services outside the accommodation. (17% each, or 13 euros for each type of expenditure).
At the same time, expenditures for culture amounted to an average of 4 euros per person per day, and other expenditures were around 2 euros.
Also, in the observed period, tourists in HNK, as in previous years, mostly visited Mostar with the old city center, monuments and museums, Blagaj with the famous Buna spring and tekija, the Marian shrine of Međugorje, then Počitelj, Stolac, Čapljina, nature parks Hutovo blato and Blidinje and the Vjetrenica cave.
In Konjic, tourists visited the Atomic Rocket Shelter the most, and in Jablanica the Museum ‘Battle for the Wounded on the Neretva’.
