Tourists have once again flocked to Sarajevo during the summer months to see the many cultural and historic attractions the city offers.

According to the Canton Sarajevo Tourist Association, 162,784 tourists visited the city throughout the past three months – a 19 percent increase compared to last year.

The Association said that most of the tourists are expected during the Sarajevo Film Festival. Most of the accommodation capacities in the city are already booked during the festival which will take place from August 10 until August 17.  

Sarajevo is frequently hailed as a place where the East meets the West meet, where the city meets the mountains and where tradition meets modernity.

But the thing that sets the city apart most is its multiculturalism.  

“We are trying to see all aspects of this city. It is beautiful. We will now go to the hills after we were in the centre where we met locals. Everyone was very forthcoming and it is unbelievable how good everyone speaks English,” a tourist from Italy, who came to Sarajevo for the first time and is staying for four days, told N1.  

“We came yesterday and, unfortunately, we are only staying for two days. I like the city very much and I have always dreamt about visiting Sarajevo, to see that beautiful city,” said a tourist from Sweden.  

“We just arrived, we did not manage to see a lot, except for the City Hall (build by the Austro-Hungarian Empire). We are just staying here for one day, so it is difficult to say what we like the most. I like the mountains,” said a tourist from Poland.  

“This morning we visited the Sarajevo Tunnel (a tunnel built during the 1992-1995 war to get people and food into and out of the besieged city) and it really impressed us, as we have friends who used that tunnel to come to the Netherlands, so the story about the tunnel was really intriguing for us,” said a tourist from the Netherlands.  

There are also many of those who left Bosnia long ago, but like to come back. Among them is the Obratov family, which left the Balkans 25 years ago and told N1 they miss the hospitality of the Balkan people.  

“We had a house here, and the circumstances made us leave, but we always like to come back. Apart from that, we like the food which we, of course, miss, and the soccer games,” Vladan Obratov said.  

The great hospitality is one of the things that nearly all tourists who visit Bosnia point out.  

Bosnians say that they are happy to see tourists from all over the world, but they also say that a lot still needs to be done in order to attract more of them.  

“More should be done. I was just up on Mt. Trebevic, where signs with directions are needed. These people do not know where, for example, the old part of Sarajevo is. I know all the streets in Old Town, but these people coming in need directions,” said a Sarajevan.