The Tourist Board of Sarajevo Canton marked the World Tourism Day with a festive evening dedicated to Sarajevo, tourism and the results achieved in the past period, as well as plans for further development and international positioning of the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Sarajevo records a strong growth in tourism: Record year 2025 and a new promotional story.
During the evening, a new visual story about Sarajevo was premiered – the promotional video “Visit Sarajevo, where winter warms all hearts”, which presents the city to an international audience through the atmosphere and emotion of winter, with an emphasis on its authenticity and offer throughout the year.
The Director of the CS Tourist Board, Haris Fazlagić, presented to representatives of the tourism sector, partners, institutions, businessmen and the media the most significant results of the work and activities of the Tourist Board, as well as the direction in which, through the cooperation of various actors, Sarajevo is developing as a tourist destination.
“Last year, the promotional video won second place in the world, and in Los Angeles we were first in our category. This year, too, we finished a new video, which includes autumn and winter, and next year we will directly enter the competition program and try to win the first place in the world,” said Fazlagić.
It is no small thing to be second in the world, he added, especially because the domestic production represents Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the best way through this video.
“We are satisfied with the results this year, especially bearing in mind that the tourist season was globally challenging due to wars, rising fuel and plane ticket prices. “While some countries in the region are recording a drop in arrivals, Sarajevo has bucked those trends and continues to break records. At the same time, we are paying increasing attention to sustainable tourism, rather than just figures for arrivals and overnight stays,” he stated.
“They are optimistic, he says, when it comes to winter. They have already announced the program for New Year’s Eve, many concerts, festivals and other events are expected. They will try to further affirm mountain tourism and outdoor activities, while in the coming years they will develop concert and festival tourism even more strongly.
According to the presented data, the year 2025 was a record year for tourism in Sarajevo Canton. 854,957 tourist arrivals and 1,967,853 overnight stays were recorded, while guests from as many as 199 countries of the world visited Sarajevo.
Compared to 2023, when around 665,000 arrivals were recorded, the number of arrivals in 2025 has increased by 28.5 percent. At the same time, the number of overnight stays increased by 32.3 percent. From 665 thousand arrivals in 2023, there were 855 thousand in 2025. This represents a growth of 28.5 percent and shows that interest in Sarajevo is continuously growing.
The growth in the number of overnight stays, which was higher than the growth in the number of arrivals, was particularly highlighted. Because, as pointed out, not only the number of tourists is growing, but the number of overnight stays is growing even faster. This shows that guests not only come in larger numbers, but also stay longer, which is one of the important indicators of the destination’s attractiveness.
Today, Sarajevo is a truly international tourist destination, he added, more than 85 percent of our guests are foreign tourists, and visits from 199 countries of the world show the breadth of the market in which Sarajevo is present, Fazlagić pointed out.
The availability of the destination, as emphasized, is one of the key factors in the further development of tourism. According to the data presented by the KS Tourist Board, 94 percent of tourists consider direct flight connections to be an important factor when choosing a destination.
Every new direct line does not mean only a new flight – it opens a new market and brings new guests – said Fazlagić, emphasizing continuous activities to improve Sarajevo’s air connection with European and world markets.
The growth of the tourism sector, as pointed out, is the result of the work and cooperation of numerous actors. In the period from 2022 to 2025, more than 650 projects in the fields of gastronomy, sports, outdoor offers and culture were supported.
These results did not arise by themselves and are not the result of the work of only one institution. Through cooperation with tourist entities, event organizers, associations and the creative sector, we create contents that make people come to Sarajevo, stay longer and return to it again.
The development of tourism implies the joint work of all actors, as stated “because tourism is not built by one institution – we all build the tourism of Sarajevo together”.
The new promotional video “Visit Sarajevo, where winter warms all hearts” is a continuation of the earlier successful promotional campaign “Where Cultures Embrace”.
The new campaign presents Sarajevo through the winter atmosphere, emotion and authentic city motifs, emphasizing the uniqueness of the destination, which offers visitors different contents and experiences throughout the year.
The premier presentation of the video was also the final highlight of the evening dedicated to the results of previous work and the new phase of Sarajevo’s promotion on the international tourist market, Fena writes.
