How much do we know about tourists visiting BiH: Chinese love monuments, Arabs love water and food

Director of the Agency for Cultural-Historical and Natural Heritage and Development of Tourist Potentials of the City of Jajce, Huso Hadžić, says that tourists visiting BiH want more or less the same thing - a quality vacation and interesting attractions, but there are still small differences among them, depending primarily on the country of origin. 

Arabs, for example, seek rivers and lakes first, while Chinese tourists love national monuments...

- If you go to the waterfall or the Pliva Lakes, you can expect to find Arab tourists there. They love water and restaurants with good food. Last year, I watched a married couple, with a child in a stroller, standing in the middle of the rain and laughing heartily. They truly enjoyed it. The rain was an experience for them. When they come to the waterfall, they always go under it and truly admire it – Hadžić explains for the Patria news agency.

- On the other hand, if you go to the Catacombs, you will most likely find Chinese tourists there. They like to see and learn something about the national monuments of the country they are visiting. They like to explore the city and hear about its history – adds Hadžić.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is becoming increasingly attractive to foreign tourists. Experts warn that if authorities want to leverage the country's potential, they must more quickly launch a stronger campaign to train tourism workers and design programs that will offer tourists a complete experience in the country. This primarily applies to demanding tourists from China, whose numbers in BiH are increasing every year. They have money, they don't mind spending it, but they are a real test for tour guides. They are usually well-informed about the places they visit, so they already have a lot of questions ready to bombard the translator with.

One of the guides described them as follows: “They are willing to pay whatever you ask, but in return, they demand a lot, a lot of information.”

According to official data from the State Agency for Statistics, Bosnia and Herzegovina is visited by one million tourists annually, and this number is far greater because a large number of tourists are not registered, writes Patria.