Part of the diaspora will spend their holidays in Brazil instead of BiH

The World Football Championship in Brazil, which starts today, could negatively affect our country's economic situation, says Emir Kurtić, an assistant at the Faculty of Economics in Sarajevo, in an interview with the BiH news agency Patria.

Although the whole country is celebrating the Dragons' qualification for the World Cup, this young expert explains, it could also bring negative consequences for BiH's economy, as a large number of BiH citizens in the diaspora will spend their annual holidays in Brazil instead of BiH.

- The diaspora, which usually spends its holiday money in BiH, will now spend its money in Brazil. The question is how this will affect our economy – says Kurtić.

However, in the long run, he believes, the Dragons' participation in the World Cup could pay off.

- Surely more people will know about BiH, and that means, to begin with, that we exist, that many new options are opening up for us. There are studies that say that after Stoke City entered the elite ranks of English football, the number of students at Stoke University increased by about 50 percent – says Kurtić.

When asked by a Patria journalist whether our country could have better utilized the national football team's qualification for the World Cup, in terms of booking advertising space on major television channels, as it did a few years ago in a tourism project, Kurtić believes that this is outdated.

- We had a number of countries from the region advertising on major television channels. However, that was a trend at the time which is now outdated. I am not sure how much effect it had at all, and whether that effect was ever measured – says Kurtić.

Melika Husić-Mehmedović, a professor of Marketing, also from the Faculty of Economics in Sarajevo, believes that the qualification of Edin Džeko and the team for the World Cup has brought a lot of good to BiH, at least when it comes to the internal atmosphere in the country, which was much needed in a time of difficult economic situations and floods.

People have united around one thing, they are in good spirits, and there is a generally nicer atmosphere in society – says Dr. Husić-Mehmedović for NAP.