During an official visit to Spain, Federal Minister of Environment and Tourism Branka Đurić attended the opening ceremony of one of the most important international tourism fairs, FITUR 2013, which is being held in Madrid from 30.01-03.02.
During the fair, Minister Đurić gave her support to the BiH tourism sector, which is represented at this eminemt tourist market.
FITUR 2013, which is being held for the 33rd consecutive year, gathers 9,506 tourism businesses and around 100,000 participants from 167 countries throughout the world. This confirms that 2012 showed another positive trend of growth in this business sector, and in the next few days this event will be followed by more than 6,000 registered journalists from 54 countries.
Miniser Đurić, along with Jasna Krivošić Prpić, the Ambassador fo BiH to Spain, attended the traditional reception of the Spanish royal family, who welcome senior officials participating in FITUR every year.
Minister Đurić took the opportunity to meet with the Secretary General of World Tourism Organization Taleb Rifai and his associates, Zorica Urošević, the program coordinator for institutional and corporative relations, Ivan Kester, the host of the program for trends and marketing strategy for tourism, Isabel Garana, the Regional Director for Europe and Zoltan Somogi, the Executive Director of UNWTO for Europe.
At the headquarters of the World Tourism Organization in Madrid, the participants exchanged opinions of the state of tourism at the global level and in the FBiH in a friendly atmosphere.
Minister Đurić spoke with Rifai about the state of tourism in FBiH, with the activities of the Federal Ministry of Environment and Tourism, and used the opportunity to invite Rifai and his associates to visit our country again.
Minister Đurić announced that tourism holds the most perspective economic opportunities in FBiH. There is undoubtedly potential, but that it is time to begin to use that potential.
‘’In order to do this, it requires a lot of work, from expanding accommodation capacity, improving availability of our destinations, improving road infrastructure, and the promotion of better quality education of our tourism-hospitality’’, said Minister Đurić.
They also discussed on the establishment of a quality system of gathering information and statistics, keeping in mind that the grey market still creates difficulties in the field. Thus, Rifai expressed his desire to help in finding the best possible solution.
Rifai thanked Minister Đurić for the detailed report and her visit to UNWTO, and said that the FBiH and BiH can count on the support of the World Trade Organization. He also said that he believes tourism in BiH has a secure future, which is based on what he saw during his visit to our country. It is time for people throughout the world to find out what BiH has to offer in tourism.
