To increase the level of people working in tourism in Bosnia and Herzegovina from the existing 1.8 percent, to about 7 percent, as it is the case in other countries in the region, authorities in BiH have to modify the laws concerning tourism and its activities, but also abolish VAT on tourist services or at least introduce a differentiated rate, or substantially reduce its amount on tourism services, because of the exceptional importance of rapid development of this sector in BiH.
The official data of the Foreign Trade Chamber are devastating, according to those tourism GDP in BiH participates only with 2.08%, and in the countries of the region it’s up to 14%. Although the development of the tourism sector should have been one of the three most attractive sectors for the development of a strategic framework to attract foreign investment, to achieve competitiveness, it is necessary to “further improve the policy in tourism and, above all, to connect it with all the other economic activities and resources and to ensure a greater inflow of foreign investments in this sector, and an great way is the introduction of a differentiated or zero rate of VAT for tourism “.
They are led by the experience of our neighbour countries, mostly, Croatia, where the reduction of the VAT rate increased revenues in the tourism industry. One of the proposals of foreign investors is to differently tax tourist services which are exported, because the existing way makes the sector less competitive due to the fact that services are more expensive.
Tourism, as an important economic activity in BiH, had a constant growth in the number of tourists in 2013 and reached 850,000 people, that is an increase of 13% compared to 2012. Unfortunately, in 2014, the trend went back to the rates of 2013. Several factors influence this state, but the most striking are the natural disasters that hit Bosnia in the last year (no snow on the mountains, floods and rain during the Summer season).
Reorganization
Of course, it should be noted that these numbers are far below the average in competing countries, according to the stated criteria and presented data, BiH is far below average compared to its direct competitors. “To remedy the situation, you need a systematic approach of improving policies in tourism, at all institutional levels in order to create the best possible conditions.
The importance and role of tourism in developing countries in the review and planning of economic activities, as well as activities that benefit all wealth of a country and ensure the inflow of foreign investments and capital, confirms the necessity of this improvement in BiH”, states the Foreign Trade Chamber of BiH. As one of the options for strengthening the financial benefits of tourism is the reorganization of tourist communities.
(Source: Akta.ba)
