The number of tourist visits and overnights in Bosnia and Herzegovina continues to grow. Accommodation capacities also grow but so do the problems faced by the people in this industry. The grey market is just one of them.

In the first six months of this year, nearly 600,000 tourists visited the country. Bosnia’s Statistics Agency said they recorded 1.3 million overnights, which is 15 percent more compared to the same period last year.

Along with the number of tourists, the number of hotels, hostels, motels as well as private accommodation facilities constantly grow.

Official numbers say that over 90 percent of tourists stayed in hotels, unofficially, tourism employees say the numbers are much higher.

“Hotels register all of their guests so they’re not the problem, the problem is this grey zone which relates to those renting out their private accommodation,” said Igor Tosic, director of the Tourist Organization of East Sarajevo.

The Booking and Abnb websites offer something for everyone.

“Everything available on those websites is crammed with tourists. There is no organised sense for what type of tourism should be developed here, what type of people should come here. The people coming to Mostar will never want to return again, once they see how disorganised the destination is,” Head of the Foreign Trade Chamber’s Commission for Tourism and Catering Mili Bijavac told N1.

An especially worrying fact is that anyone can find accommodation online, but very few such accommodations are registered with the competent state institution.

“If God forbid, something were to go wrong for the potential guest or tourist residing in such an unregistered accommodation facility, the person who rented that accommodation, would bear harsh consequences,” Igor Tosic said.

On the other hand, all the registered visitor immediately receive all basic protection. Therefore, Bosnian authorities are appealing to the persons renting their private accommodation to register their business and all the visitors staying in their rooms.