Bosnia and Herzegovina has a great potential to attract tourists and has recorded significant result in the branch of tourism.
In order to further develop this sector of tourism, BiH should further work on the promotion and protection of its resources. Currently, only 2.2 percent of natural heritage is protected in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
A similar situation is with the cultural and historical heritage in BiH, which is only protected on paper, said the Federation Tourist Board.
“Many Bosnian resources such as mountain tourism (summer and winter), rural, adventure and gastro-tourism, are all segments that are extremely rich in resources. If the government would engage in high-quality planning, management, and promotion, these resources could turn into a true, world-recognized, Bosnian brand,” announces Federation Tourist Board.
Moreover, they emphasize that there is a lot of tourism potential in BiH, but that they should be valued.
“From a potential, to become a tourism product, it is necessary to pass several stages in which the state has a key role in terms of making positive legal solutions and creating strategic documents. In addition, the government has the ability to make clearly defined goals that need in a certain period to give the planned results. After the state finishes with the legislative, strategic and financial interventions, then the product that offers strong promotion and branding is formed”, states Federation Tourist Board.
This organization hopes that 2019 will bring a continuation of positive numbers and results, and expect that tourists will recognize BiH as a country with a rich cultural, historical and natural heritage.
In the period from January – July 2018 tourists realized 811,660 tourists arrivals which represent the increase by 12.2% and 1,690,663 overnight stays which is an increase by 14.3 as compared to the same period of 2017.
The number of domestic tourist nights increased by 16.6% and the number of foreign tourist nights increased by 13.4% as compared to the same period of 2017. Domestic tourist’s share of a total number of overnight stays was 29.7% and foreign tourists share was 70.3%.
Concerning the structure of foreign tourist nights, most of them (53.2%) were realised by tourists from Croatia (12.9%), Serbia (9.0%), Turkey (7.4%), Slovenia (5.4%), United Arab Emirates (4.8%), Poland (4.7%), Germany (4.6%) and Italy (4.4%). Tourists from other countries realized 46.8% of tourist nights.
Regarding the average detention of foreign tourist stays, on the first place comes Qatar with an average stay of 3.6 nights, Ireland with 3.5 nights, Kuwait with 3.4 nights and the United Arab Emirates with 3.1 nights.
According to the type of accommodation facility, the highest number of nights was recorded in Hotels and similar accommodation with a share of 91.2%.
