A total of 227,192 tourists visited Bosnia’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity in the first half of the year, which is an increase of 0.2 percent compared to the same period last year.

However, the number of registered overnight stays is significantly higher, by five percent or some 27,000 more compared to the same period last year.

According to the data of the RS Statistical Office, a total of 563,365 overnight stays were reported in the first half of this year.

Traditionally, spa resorts and other tourist spots are the most visited, while foreign tourists account for 59.6 percent of the guest structure. Thus, in the first half of this year, 135,423 foreign tourists were registered. As expected, around 85 percent of foreign tourists are from the countries of the former Yugoslavia.

Tourists mostly come from Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Turkey, Montenegro, Germany, Austria, China, North Macedonia and Hungary.

“Tourists from Croatia stay the longest, with an average of four days,” Marko Radic, head of the promotion sector of the RS Tourist Organization said. He added that tourists stay the longest in spa centres for an average of 5.4 days.