Banja Luka – The tourist destinations of RS during the first seven months of this year compared to previously has been far more attractive for foreign tourists.
According to RS Institute of Statistics data, in the period from January to July the number of foreign tourist arrivals has increased by 11.8 percent compared with the same period last year, while the number of overnight stays has increased by 12.1 percent.
In this period, RS has achieved a total of 381,586 overnight stays, of which 161,363 is related to foreign tourists and 220,233 overnight stays of local tourists. The number of overnight stays of local tourists has recorded a slight decline of 2.8 percent.
RS is mostly visited by tourists from neighboring countries – primarily Serbia (57,181 overnight) , then Croatian ( 28 578 ), Slovenia ( 15,179 ) and Montenegro ( 7542 ).
Regarding to tourists from other European countries, this year has recorded a solid progress. Thus, the RS for tourists out of former Yugoslavia, the most interesting has been for Russians who have actually stayed 5801 days with an increase in visits of 5.9 percent , followed by the Germans with a growth of nine percent and 13.3 percent of Italians , while tourists from Austria have recorded a decline of 11.9 percent overnights.
Statistics have confirmed that the foreign tourists during the first seven months of this year have recorded 11.6 percent more nights at hotels than in the same period last year and that their arrival has made a jump of 37 percent overnights in resorts and accommodation for a short period.
Nada Jovanović, the Director of Tourist Organization of RS, said that the increase in the development of tourism has influenced the number of presentations that were held in RS and abroad- Belgrade, Brussels, Vienna, Stuttgart, Moscow and Tel Aviv.
“We are trying our best to present RS as a very attractive tourist destination. It seems that our work is paying off” she said.
Number of foreign tourist in RS this year has increased by 11.8 percent compared with the same period last year
“This year, 30 percent more tourists have visited Trebinje than last year, and it should be emphasized that Andrićgrad is visited by around 2,000 tourists a day. Unfortunately, these two cities still do not have accommodation facilities for people to stay longer”, says Jovanović.
Limited accommodation facilities present a problem in accepting significant number of tourists. RS has only two five-star hotels – hotel “Kaldera” in Aleksandrovac in Laktaš and “Pirg” in ethno- village “Stanišić” in Bijeljina.
Alexander Radosević, Director of Marketing at ZTC ” Banja Vrućica” in Teslić, said that during the first six months is recorded the highest attendance with 72.500 nights, an increase of 4.9 percent compared with the same period last year.
He said that “Banja Vrućiva” is significantly visited by more and more foreign tourists, and especially from tourists of the region.
“This year is recorded 32 percent foreign visits, while last year was 28 percent”, he noted.
(Source: Nezavisne novine)
