WILL SRPSKA REACH 1.5 MILLION TOURIST OVERNIGHTS THIS YEAR?

This year’s tourist season in the Republic of Srpska could conclude with a record-breaking 1.5 million tourist overnights, highlighting Srpska as fertile ground for tourism investments, said Marko Radić, Head of the Tourism Promotion Department at the Republic's Tourist Organization.

"We are awaiting data for the last four months. If we compare it to 2023, we can expect about 400,000 additional registered overnights. I hope we will finish 2024 with 1.5 million registered overnights, which will be an absolute record since we started monitoring these parameters in Srpska," Radić stated.

He added that such a result would provide a new boost for Srpska's tourism to receive more attention and financial resources for promotion.

"It would also be a good signal for investors in the Republic of Srpska, showing it is fertile ground for investments," Radić emphasized for Srna.

Radić specified that in the first eight months of this year, 802,000 tourist overnights were registered in Srpska, an increase of around 35,000 compared to the same period last year.

"When we look at June, July, and August, we also have 15,000 more overnights than in the same quarter of the previous year," Radić noted, adding that revenue from the tourist tax increased by five percent compared to the same period last year.

Speaking about upcoming activities of the Tourist Organization of the Republic of Srpska, Radić mentioned plans to participate in three international fairs by the end of the year.

"At the end of the month, we will be in Kragujevac, in mid-November at the International Tourism Fair in Thessaloniki, and at the end of November at the International Tourism Fair in Novi Sad, where we plan to present ourselves with a larger stand and a greater number of local tourist organizations from Srpska," Radić said.

He added that this would also be an opportunity to invite tourists from Serbia to visit Srpska, noting that in the first eight months of this year, tourists from Serbia accounted for 160,000 overnights, while last year they had around 250,000 overnights.