The new year 2025, in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, will begin with a rich program that includes as many as five music concerts and other numerous contents, and tourism workers expect a new record attendance during the New Year holidays.
Director of the Sarajevo Canton Tourist Board, Haris Fazlagić, confirmed in a statement to Feni that 2024 will be a record-breaking tourist year according to the results.
“We recorded the largest number of tourist arrivals and overnight stays in Sarajevo Canton, as we had an increased number of arrivals and overnight stays in all months compared to all previous statistics,” said Fazlagić.
According to the latest statistical data, in the period January – November, KS was visited by 699,315 tourists, and 1,514,291 overnight stays were achieved, which represents an increase in tourist traffic by 23.3 percent (18.8 percent in overnight stays) compared to the previous year. The number of foreign tourists increased by 26.6 percent. The average length of stay of tourists was 2.2 days. In 2024, Sarajevo Canton was visited by tourists from 198 countries around the world.
As for accommodation capacity in Sarajevo Canton, the total number of beds is close to 18,000, while the total number of rooms is close to 8,000.
According to the type of accommodation facilities, hotels have the largest share in the total number of available rooms, close to 5,000, and about 11,000 beds.
Also, tourist traffic dominates in hotels, and is, for example, in November 2024, 95 percent stayed in them, and 5 percent of the total number of tourist arrivals in other accommodation facilities.
Hotels accounted for 90 percent of overnight stays, and other accommodation facilities accounted for 10 percent of the total number of tourist overnight stays.
Director Fazlagić reminds that the Tourist Board of Sarajevo Canton took part in the preparation of the adopted Tourism Development Strategy of KS until 2030, and states that it is an important document through which the image of tourism growth and development will be changed and improved in practice and priority actions will be specified.
The previous development of the tourism industry has “forced” a planned approach to the strategic development of tourism, which is becoming the primary economic branch in KS and as such must have a stronger driving force, since about 50 percent of the tourist traffic of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina takes place in Sarajevo Canton.
“Among the important projects that we started in 2024 is the subsidy of around 30 new direct airlines with the aim of increasing new and supporting existing airline connections,” reminds Fazlagić.
Three million KM have been set aside for this purpose, which will be invested in the co-financing of projects of importance for the development of tourism, the enrichment of the tourist offer, the reduction of the seasonality of tourist visits and the extension of the stay of tourists in Sarajevo Canton.
During the year, TZ KS supported more than 230 projects in the fields of culture, sports, entertainment, tradition, gastronomy, through public invitations and in cooperation with the Sarajevo Canton Government.
Cooperation and support of more than 150 institutions, business entities, associations, sports federations and prominent individual athletes was also achieved.
“We are part of the promotional activities of hundreds of supported individual activities and events in the territory of all municipalities in the Canton of Sarajevo. Our work has been recognized and rewarded, and the Tourist Board of the Canton of Sarajevo is the winner of the Swiss Tourism Award, a prestigious international recognition that has been awarded in Switzerland for 18 years. for the improvement of excellence in different segments of the tourism industry”, says Fazlagić.
Considering that in 2024, TZ KS laid extremely strong and challenging foundations, Fazlagić says that the started subsidizing airlines will be continued because he believes that they will continue to break the previous records of tourist arrivals in Sarajevo, and it will be one of the biggest financial investments in 2025 . year.
“We will continue our promotion through trade fairs all over the world, and with our tourism employees communicate directly with global tourism employers and potential tourists, and thus find out their expectations, wishes and needs from our tourism market,” announced Fazlagić.
“The outline plan is for 2025 to be better and more successful than the current record year 2024. We will work on all available fields to justify the opinions of the readers of the prestigious National Geographic magazine, who declared us the best destination to visit in 2025,” emphasizes Fazlagić.
With the arrival of the New Year in 2025, they expect a new record attendance, great entertainment and satisfied tourists.
Over the years, Sarajevo has shown that it is an excellent New Year’s center in the region and beyond. We expect the best time this year, we offer as many as five concerts that take place outdoors and are free for all our guests, who will entertain DJ Topic, After Affair, Sara Jo (December 30), Adi Šoše, Severina (December 31), Nina Badrić (January 2), Bajaga and Instructors (January 3) and Dirty Theater (January 4). In addition, Sarajevo’s hotels and catering establishments traditionally prepare good entertainment.
“Accommodation facilities are mostly full or reserved, and this year according to our statistics, they are 6 percent more than last year,” said the director of the Sarajevo Canton Tourist Board, Haris Fazlagić.
(Vijesti.ba)
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