H.E. Ambassador Dimitris Kourkoulas, Head of the European Commission Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina, attended the opening ceremony of the Conference on Support to Tourism Development in Bosnia and Herzegovina today in Sarajevo. Organised on the occasion of marking the World Tourism Day, this conference gathered all relevant stakeholders to exchange views and to jointly derive conclusions on future actions in tourism sector.

Organization of this conference was a result of a joint initiative by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Working Group for Coordination of Activities in Tourism in B&H, supported by the Delegation of European Commission to Bosnia and Herzegovina that recognized the initiative as a necessary step in the process of further development and promotion of tourism in the country.

Ambassador Kourkoulas reminded that the European Commission supported the development of competitiveness in tourism sector by financing 60 projects with over than 10 million €. In addition, last year a comprehensive Mapping Report was produced in order to provide strategic guidelines and recommendation for targeted EU assistance in the future. Outlining the fact that capabilities of BiH tourism infrastructure need to be strengthened, Ambassador Kourkoulas said that development of tourism sector would contribute to the overall development of BiH economy. “For the European Commission this Conference is an excellent example that this country in spite of all problems can progress and build better future and European Commission is here to help in these endeavours.”, concluded Ambassador Kourkoulas.

Mr. Mladen Zirojević, Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations in the BH Council of Ministers, said that the goal of this Conference was to dedicate additional attention to the sector of tourism and to “start the processes that would bring us to the better usage and enjoy in beauty of the nature and the heritage of our ancestors.”

Nevenko Herceg, Minister of Environment and Tourism of the Federation of BiH stressed the importance of creating a positive image of BiH by promoting it as a beautiful country of rich history based on variety of cultures. His colleague from Republika Srpska, Mr. Predrag Gluhaković, Minister of Trade and Tourism of RS, urged that no one in BiH should be shy of promoting all the beauties and capacities of BiH and that tourism should gain second or third place of the community priorities.

Thematic part of the Conference commenced with the presentation by Dr. Johan Hesse, First Secretary and Head Operational Section Economic Reform and Natural Resources of the Delegation of the European Commission to Bosnia and Herzegovina. He presented the findings of EU funded report about assessment needs in the BiH tourism.

The conference covered broad spectre of topics relevant for further development of tourism in Bosnia and Herzegovina: from the legislative framework and tourism statistics, topics related to the cultural heritage protection and tourist valorisation, significance of branding and marketing in tourism to the brief on priorities in the sector of tourism in Bosnia and Herzegovina as recognised by the EU. On this occasion, successful entrepreneurs and/or representatives of the local communities were also given the opportunity to concisely present their initiatives that had significant results, and shared their own views on the successful tourism business models.

The conference was organised with technical assistance of the EU funded project – EU Training and Consultancy EU TAC.