Conference about rural tourism in Sarajevo Canton

Yesterday, the 10 th of May 2017, an inspiring conference dedicated to “izazovi i perspective razvoja

incoming turizma u Sarajevskoj regiji” has been organized by the team of the project “MarketMakers”

and the tourism agency Centrotours .

This event was held at the new Hotel Hills in Ilidza and has been a great opportunity to gather important

stakeholders involved in the development of the incoming tourism in the canton of Sarajevo: private

businesses, institutions, researchers, tourism agencies and regional development agencies as well as a

few CSO.

The “MarketMakers” project is part of the Swiss Government youth employment portfolio in Bosnia and

Herzegovina. It is implemented by Helvetas NGO and Kolektiv doo/Posao doo and seeks to enhance job

opportunities in targeted sectors for youth, both men and women aged between 15 and 29. The project

lasts 8.5 years.

A first presentation of the incoming tourism focused on Herzegovina’s experience’s, the Cluster and its

added values for the members in this hinterland of Adriatic sea. Mr Primorac particularly insisted on the

importance of common promotion at various international fairs, which brought many visitors from

unexpected origins such as India and South Corea since 2 years.

Afterwards, the regional marketing representative of Turkish Airlines provided key data about the place

of Sarajevo among their products and origin of clients together with development perspectives. Then,

the conference introduced different agencies’ experiences on the challenges and opportunities of the

incoming tourism development in Sarajevo. This led to a presentation by Valicon marketing agency on a

few aspects of branding and destination management.

Finally, various institutions, experts and researchers discussed about the creation of a favorable

environment for the development of this segment.

Despite the existing constraints stressed by the various panelists (including lack of enabling legal

environment, investments, not enough packages to promote Sarajevo, lack of human resources and

education, missing infrastructure or access to information available for the tourists), all participants

agreed on the fact that a real dynamic was enhanced in Sarajevo to gather various initiatives. In

particular since last winter, they noticed the organization of many networking opportunities, seminars

and workshops dedicated to this sector for Sarajevo. All these events will certainly contribute to create

new synergies, networks and the development of common innovative projects. The aim is to bring the

sector as one of the top priorities for the decision makers in capital city for future investments. All the

speakers confirm the high potential of the city including its wide periphery, providing space for

innovation and investment.

However, tourism remains one hyper-competitive sector. Bosnia and Herzegovina needs to define a

unique “brend” at a national and even regional level in the Balkans. One interesting approach was

proposed by the newly created website “Balkanvibe”. This promising initiative fully responds to this

regional demand from the incoming tourists. Indeed, the market demand over-crosses all the

administrative boarders and requires strong regional cooperation. This was also one of the key

messages from Herzegovina’s experience. Participants were positively impressed by the recent

networking opportunities.

Finally, one major issue was also raised by Pr. Almir Pestek at the end of the event on the importance of

the model of tourism development to be designed for Sarajevo. Sustainability considerations will always

need to guide the next steps and serve as a basis for the future development strategies.