Today, in Sarajevo, USAID Turizam hosted a forum titled “Taking Bosnia and Herzegovina to the International Marketplace,” at which USAID Turizam presented its accomplishments and objectives for the coming year. With valuable input from our partners from Visit Sarajevo, International Airport Sarajevo and International Airport Mostar, the participants had the opportunity to get better insight into the current situation regarding the tourism offer and challenges the industry is currently facing. This event was attended by numerous BiH tourism sector representatives, including hotel representatives, tourism organizations, developing agencies, and others.
One of the project partners is the FBiH Ministry of Environment and Tourism, whose representatives at the Forum presented positive developments in the field of tourism and hospitality.
“Emphasis is placed on the promotion of tourism destinations. As part of the project, a TripAdvisor campaign was implemented, thanks to which the number of tourists and arrivals in BiH increased. We have also improved the elements for the categorization of catering facilities, i.e. hotels, apartments, and tourist resorts. The Tourism Development Strategy for the period 2021 to 2027 has been prepared and it is a document that represents the basis for the development of tourism in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” representatives of the FBiH Ministry of Environment and Tourism pointed out.
At the Forum, it was pointed out that Mostar International Airport has done a lot to improve tourism in BiH, whose executive director Ibrica Berberović emphasized that the season was challenging after the pandemic, as a result of which access to certain markets was lost, and the need to find new interesting markets was expressed which will increase the number of tourists.
“We managed to reestablish our cooperation with the Italian market and we also entered the Polish market which is interesting for both Sarajevo and Mostar. We are currently negotiating with a low-cost company to complete our offer with two regular lines in the coming year,” pointed out Berberović.
The USAID Turizam project assists airlines by promoting, advertising, and advocating for certain groups of individuals to travel to Bosnia and Herzegovina via airlines and travel agents.
Thanks to the work of the Sarajevo Canton Tourism Board, this canton has positioned itself as an attractive tourist destination, which records an increase in tourist traffic year after year.
“Since the beginning of the USAID Turizam project in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Tourist Board of the Canton of Sarajevo (KS) has had quality and continuous cooperation, and we have recognized the significance of this project for the development and improvement of tourism in KS and across Bosnia and Herzegovina. Today, we are presenting the results of the past year and discussing our future goals. We are pleased and gratified to say that we are among the 5% of nations worldwide whose tourism income has returned to pre-pandemic levels, i.e., that we are among the few countries that have recovered more quickly than anticipated. Tourism in KS has not entirely recovered to levels prior to the outbreak. Looking at 2019 as a whole, we are still approximately 20% behind the record-breaking year. However, we can claim that the winter season this year was better than in 2019, which was a record year.”, concluded KS Tourism Board coordinator, Emina Nizić.
