Abuses in tourism: Novi Travnik reported one tourist last year

During ten months last year, only one tourist was registered in Novi Travnik, while for the same period, only 30 tourists were registered in Donji Vakuf, the BH news agency Patria (NAP) has learned.

Patria's interlocutors warn that the situation is bad in most other municipalities as well, and that the number of tourists visiting local tourism potentials is far greater than the reported figures, but due to the absence of municipal tourism boards in the Federation of BiH, no one has real control over the tourists visiting local communities.

Samer Dolovac, owner of the travel agency SAN Tours from Travnik, told Patria that local tourism in the Federation of BiH is currently under the jurisdiction of cantonal ministries of economy, or rather, through them, under the jurisdiction of the Federal Ministry of Tourism and Environment, which complicates the whole matter.

The current legal regulation does not allow municipalities at the local level to establish local tourism boards that would manage and promote local tourism much better and more efficiently than cantons do now.

- It is absurd that the decision on whether to arrange the beach in Neum is made in Mostar - says Dolovac.

He explains that representatives of several local municipalities from the Federation of BiH have submitted a request to the Federal authorities to amend the existing law, which will enable the formation of local tourism boards, and thus better development of local tourism, writes Patria.