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 are 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.
In the period from January – May 2020 there were 183,260 tourists arrivals which represent the decrease by 65.7% and 445.534 overnight stays which is a decrease by 59.7% as compared to the same period of 2019.
The number of overnight stays by foreign tourists decreased by 50.8%.
Concerning the structure of foreign tourist nights, most of them (75.5%) were realised by tourists from Croatia (33.1%), Serbia (19.1%), Slovenia (6.2%), Turkey (4.1%), Montenegro (3.7%), Germany (2,9%), China (2.4%), Italy and Austria (each by 2.0%). Tourists from other countries realised 24.5% of tourist nights.
Regarding the average detention of foreign tourist stays, on the first place comes Iran with an average stay of 13.1 nights, South Africa with 5.6 nights, Kuwait with 4.9 nights and Cyprus with 4.1 nights.
According to the type of accommodation facility, the highest number of nights was recorded in hotels and similar accommodation with share of 92.6%.
