The Conference "Tourism in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the service of economic development and growth" was organized in Banja Luka by Swedish Foundation Jarl Hjalmarson.
Among representatives
of the Foundation and experts, the conference was
attended by Mladen Ivanić, a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, and Gordan Milinić, Director of FIPA.
The FIPA
Director Gordan Milinić spoke about the role and activities of the Agency on promotion of the tourism sector
potentials of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and stated that using the financial
support of certain foreign institutions, such as USAID, World Bank, OECD,
grants funds of the governments of certain countries, etc., FIPA succeeded to
do the appropriate promotional materials, as were the studies of individual
sectors, as well as film clips such as "Enjoy Business" and
"Enjoy Life". FIPA also succeeded to promote BiH through various marketing
campaigns in the international print and electronic media, like as Financial
Times, CNN, etc.
He also pointed out that in a similar manner,
in cooperation and with the financial support of the World Bank, within the
Project of the World Bank / IFC / Invest in the Western Balkans, promotional
workshops on investment opportunities in the tourism sector were realized in
several foreign countries.
In addition, FIPA attends numerous
conferences, workshops, conferences etc. organized and financially supported by
the OECD, WAIPA, the World Bank, etc, at which BiH is promoted in various
forms.
At the conference it was pointed out that the
tourism sector in BiH has great potential for development, it possesses all the
prerequisites to play an important role in economic development and that for
this reason, the development of tourism has been recognized as one of the top
priorities of the overall national economic development policies.
The most promising branches of the BiH tourism
are: winter and mountain tourism, ecotourism, spa tourism, cultural and
religious tourism, sports and adventure tourism and sea tourism.
Jens Ahl, Deputy Director of the Foundation
Jarl Hjalmarson, thanked the Director of FIPA on participation and promised the
help of experts of the Foundation to attract foreign investments in BiH.