As of February this year, it could be known how many tourists are staying in Republika Srpska at any given time, thanks to the introduction of the Central Information System in the hospitality industry, which enables electronic monitoring of arrivals, guest registration and residence tax records in real time.
“The overview of the data is already available, with the fact that the phase of registration of facilities and service providers is currently underway, which began on January 1, and for which a period of one month has been left,” the RS Ministry of Trade and Tourism told Fena news agency.
After registration, the inspection will begin with control, which will first give a verbal warning because the goal is to enter the system, not fines.
The central information system, as stated by the Ministry, is a unique system that enables records of catering facilities, guests and residence tax, which ensures better control, reliable statistics and more efficient collection of public revenues.
“Access is free for all restaurateurs who provide accommodation services, and this system, along with better insight into statistical indicators, significantly strengthens transparency and fiscal discipline, and improves activities to suppress the gray economy,” they state in this department.
Through this system, it will be possible to instantly see the occupancy of accommodation facilities, the number of tourists, the number of overnight stays, the structure of tourists – country of arrival, gender, age structure, length of stay.
“All these data will be important not only for the aforementioned fight against the gray economy, but also for promotion planning,” they say from the Ministry of Trade.
Statistical data and analytics will be available to the line ministry and tourism organizations, the Bureau of Statistics, and other related institutions in accordance with their responsibilities.
The creation of this system costs about 6.1 million BAM, of which 4 million BAM was paid from the budget last year, and the remaining amount will be paid during this year.
The latest available data on tourists in RS refer to 11 months of last year. In that period, the arrival of 477,944 tourists was registered, which is 2.2 percent more than in the same period last year. More than 1.1 million overnight stays or 4.5 percent were achieved in the first 11 months of 2024.
The Ministry reminds that 2,205,984.12 BAM was collected on the basis of the residence tax for 11 months last year, while in the whole of 2024 this income amounted to 2,201,791 BAM. It should be noted that most local communities also increased the amount of tourist tax last year. For example, Banja Luka increased from 2.5 BAM to 3 BAM.
In November last year, there were 12,903 permanent beds in RS.
