There is satisfaction in almost all tourist communities in the country because of the data that over half a million tourists visited Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in the first five months of this year. This is 23 percent more compared to the same period last year. Somehow they still found a way to get to us.
On the streets of Sarajevo, you can see tourists from Turkey, Germany, France, Singapore, Saudi Arabia… reporters asked them why they came, what they wanted to see, what they knew about BiH and what they liked here. Although we like to think of ourselves as a warm and hospitable people, the first remark we came across was precisely about kindness.
“We just arrived, and people are a little confused. They don’t want to say hello, but I insist on saying hello, good morning. We are all the same and we are all connected. If someone says hello, say hello!” said a tourist from Turkey.
In a travel agency, reporters met a family from Malaysia and Singapore, they are enchanted by the nature of BiH.
“We heard about very beautiful nature, about parks, lakes, waterfalls, people, we wanted to experience all that. Today we went on a historical walking tour and it was nice to understand the culture of East and West, very inspiring…” they said yesterday and added:
”I love your waterfalls, they are beautiful. Yesterday I went to one, I wanted to swim in it, I just washed myself and it was so refreshing…”
Hidajeta Plavcic, an employee of a tourist travel agency in Sarajevo, told why tourists come to Sarajevo.
“People often come here precisely for the reason to learn about the past war. However, 30 years after the war, this is a topic that needs to be discussed, but BiH has other things that people come for – nature and natural beauty. We have a food and craft tour, people have the opportunity to learn about old crafts and try traditional food. This can be one way that our country can be promoted and can be the reason why people come,” explained Plavcic.
The song that BiH would dedicate to foreigners could be Arsen’s “Everything you know about me, it’s really so little…” (”Ono sve sto znas o meni, to je stvarno tako malo…”). What they know about us is mostly war and we should definitely do more to promote all those beauties and good things that this country has in abundance, N1 reports.
E.Dz
