From March 7 to 9, USAID’s Developing Sustainable Tourism in Bosnia and Herzegovina project attended ITB Berlin along with a delegation of leading tourism organizations in the country – Visit Sarajevo, Tourism Organization of Republika Srpska (in cooperation with Fortuna Travel) and Tourism Cluster Herzegovina. The BiH delegation, with support from USAID, hosted the Bosnia and Herzegovina pavilion, further building BiH’s international tourism brand and showcasing the country’s impressive natural, cultural, and culinary heritage to the more than 10,000 exhibitors and 100,000 visitors at ITB Berlin.
On 8 March, USAID Turizam held a major event, promoting the country to more than 100 representatives of international media and global tour operators. Held at the BiH pavilion, the “Bosnia and Herzegovina: Traveling Through Sights and Tastes” event helped to further build BiH’s internationally recognized brand as an attractive and appealing year-round destination offering compelling world-class experiences. During the event, the Herzegovina Wine Route, which has been revitalized with support from USAID Turizam, also launched a new website (http://hwr.ba), which will help promote the route and further link its win-eries, hotels, restaurants, and activities with potential international visitors. The event also featured selected local wines provided by wineries Škegro and Carska Vina Grgo Vasilj, cheese from Puđa Livno as well as local food.
During the fair, USAID Turizam launched new partnerships with global tourism heavyweights Expedia and Tripadvisor to utilize these popular online platforms to promote Bosnia and Herzegovina’s rich and diverse tourism attractions to modern travelers. The collaborations with Expedia and Tripadvisor are just two of the many new partnerships USAID Turizam signed at ITB Berlin with leading international tourism partners in areas such as joint regional promotion, advancing gender equality in tourism, increasing the country’s visibility and promoting its brand in various international markets.
Another notable success for Bosnia and Herzegovina facilitated by USAID Turizam came in the shape of two major recognitions for tourism videos about BiH at the Golden City Gate Tourism Multimedia Award: golden stars in the category Country for Robert Dacešin’s Why Bosnia and Her-zegovina Can be Destination #1 in the World and in the category City for the City of Trebinje’s Place for All Generations.
Find out more about new partnerships and their significance for sustainable tourism development in Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the following link: https://turizambih.ba/category/materijali/itb-berlin/
