Sarajevo’s main streets shone in full splendor after decorations were put up ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays. Illuminated decorations and Christmas trees are in several locations, and the old city center in Baščaršija is also decorated.
Sarajevo is traditionally recognized as the regional center of the best entertainment and public New Year celebrations with the biggest music stars.
On the eve of 2024, in front of the Eternal Fire, the popular bands “Bombaj štampa”, “Zabranjeno Pusenje” and “Crvena jabuka” will entertain the audience, as well as Elvir Laković Laka, who will perform instead of the previously announced band “Letu Stuke”.
“I think that, as before, during the Christmas and New Year holidays, most tourists will be from the region, mainly tourists from Croatia, Serbia, but there is also a diaspora from Germany, Sweden and other countries. There are also tourists from Arab countries, who come a little more during the summer, but there are also in this period. We record tourists from between 140 and 160 countries,” said Kusundžija.
The Tourist Board of Sarajevo Canton, as in previous years, is working on the preparation of content that will welcome all those tourists who will come to Sarajevo Canton.
Canton of Sarajevo this year recorded 35 percent more arrivals and about 25 percent more overnight stays compared to the same period last year.
According to Adisa Kušundžija, spokeswoman for the Sarajevo Canton Tourist Board (TZ KS), this is a record year in terms of tourists and has surpassed the record of 2019.
“From the beginning of this year, we began to record an increase in arrivals and overnight stays. We already announced then that this could be a record year, which turned out to be the case towards the end of 2023. We are recording about 35 percent more arrivals and about 25 percent more overnight stays compared to the same period of last year. When we talk about statistical arrivals, foreign guests dominate, accounting for 60 percent compared to 30 percent of domestic guests,” said Kusundžija.
She stated that this statistical picture has also changed compared to the period of the coronavirus pandemic, when domestic tourists dominated.
“We have the most guests from Turkey, followed by Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro, Germany, the United States of America, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. We have also had guests from China return, among these top ten. The statistical picture is much better than in the past years, we surpassed the record 2019, and we can say that this year is better than all the previous ones,” explained Kusundžija.
This year, tourists are staying longer in Sarajevo Canton than was the case before.
“When we talk about the retention of tourists in the Sarajevo Canton, we can say that a significant shift has been made there as well, so from those two days we have reached 2.5 or three days of retention. In fact, when we talk about tourists from distant countries such as Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, tourists stay much longer, even for ten, 15 days. Unfortunately, when I talk about these statistics, I have to emphasize that they are not good enough, therefore, we do not have accurate data because many tourists are not registered on our application. That is what we will work significantly in the next year, and that is the registration of tourists on our application, on the basis of which we monitor arrivals and overnight stays,” Kusundžija pointed out.
A large number of guests are expected in Sarajevo this year during the Christmas and New Year holidays.
“That’s how this winter we supported more than 40 different projects that will take place in the winter period, until March. There are, among others, projects with which we will mark the 40th anniversary of the Olympics. That event will take place for about 17 days and it will have different events, both in the city and in the mountains. There are many sports and music events,” said Kusundžija.
From February 8 to 19, 1984, Sarajevo was the center of the world, and the entire former Yugoslavia participated in the organization of the 14th Winter Olympic Games.
“There are also our Olympic beauties that we have been promoting at all fairs lately. Especially since they are Olympic mountains that have extremely high-quality trails. There is enough snow, and we also have new hotels. The point is to bring back the Olympic spirit to Sarajevo. It is safe that February 2024 will be a real reminder of everything that happened 40 years ago,” added Kusundžija, AA writes.
