The number of tourists who visited the Sarajevo Canton the last year increased by 18.8 percent compared to 2017, with the Chinese nationals being an absolute hit as they jumped to the third place on the scale of the number of visits and being the sixth nation in overnight stays in the Bosnian capital.

According to the Sarajevo Canton Tourist Board, the number of foreign tourists increased by nearly 500,000, while the number of overnight stays went up by 22.7 percent or by 1,060,988.

The construction and opening of new accommodation facilities contributed to the growth of numbers, with the total of 143 new hotels which opened door in 2018 of which two are the 5-star and two are the 4-star hotels.

The visitors still prefer staying in hotels, according to the Tourist Board’s report, with nearly 90 percent of tourists choosing this form of accommodation.

Sarajevo Canton municipalities of Ilidza, Stari Grad, Centar, Novo Sarajevo, Novi Grad, Vogosca and Hadzici recorded the highest number of visits and overnight stays.

87 percent of the tourists were foreigners, with the Chinese tourists’ visits increasing by 118.7 percent during the last year.

The average stay of the tourists in the Sarajevo Canton was 2.1 days. The registered tourists came from 167 different countries of the world.