The summer tourist season in Sarajevo Canton has passed with a large number of tourists from all parts of the world. In the first eight months, half a million arrivals and one million overnight stays were recorded. The most numerous tourists are from Serbia and Croatia, but in general Europeans dominate, including from the United States, Gulf countries and Turkey.
Preparations for the winter tourist season, the New Year, and the 40th anniversary of the 14th Winter Olympic Games, which were held in Sarajevo from February 8 to 19, 1984, are underway.
“We are more than satisfied with the summer tourist season. This is the first post-pandemic year, and August exceeded the record year of 2019. Our goal is to reduce seasonality in Sarajevo. It means that we look at the season for 365 days, and in those 12 months we have two big tourist seasons – summer and winter. In the first eight months, we have half a million arrivals and one million overnight stays. Serbia and Croatia, our neighbors, are the most numerous. The Europeans dominate, then the United States of America, the Gulf countries, Turkey, which dominate constantly,” said the director of the Sarajevo Canton Tourist Board, Haris Fazlagić for Anadolu Agency.
He believes that tourism should be the number one economic branch in all of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Tourist Board of Bosnia and Herzegovina presented the beauty of the city and state of Bosnia and Herzegovina at fairs in Paris and Stockholm.
“Everything we do outside of Bosnia and Herzegovina is investment, so that people come here, fill our hotels and leave money,” said Fazlagić.
Record number of visitors for SFF
According to the statistical data of the Sarajevo Canton Tourist Board, during the 29th Sarajevo Film Festival, previous attendance records were broken.
From August 11 to 18 this year, the arrival of 34,157 guests was reported in Sarajevo Canton, and more than 76,810 overnight stays were made. If these figures are compared with previous years, there is a visible increase in arrivals by 33.7 percent compared to 2022 and 47.5 percent compared to 2019. The number of overnight stays is higher by 34.5 percent compared to 2022 and 52 percent compared to 2019.
