Workshop „Techniques in tourism promotion”

JICA Alumni in BiH held a workshop titled “Techniques in tourism promotion”, in beautiful surrounding of the Pliva River ", on 02 March 2013.
It is a known fact that tourism is the fastest growing industry in the world, and that BiH also, although in modest proportions, does record tourism increase. Tourism growth affects other branches, and it is crucial for a country to utilize tourism potentials they possess. Bearing in mind the fact that tourism promotion is one of the key elements in the overall tourism industry, and at the same time taking into account accelerated development of technologies and advertisements, our intention was to examine the most applicable and appropriate methods and techniques for our country. In the workshop, we discussed the following issues:
1. Methods of tourism promotion in BiH
2. Role of social networks in tourism promotion
3. Ideas for possible promotional projects of smaller scale

After Melika Arifhodzic and Dunja Pejic gave lectures and presentations on newest trends in promotion techniques, we started a discussion about problems which tourism sector in BiH faces in the process of promotion. Several potential small-scale projects were also discussed, and participants agreed to find a way to start a project of BiH tourism Newsletter.

 

 

 

 

Regional seminar on Eco tourism

The first regional seminar on Eco tourism was held in Sarajevo, organized by JICA Alumni in BiH , on 11 March 2011 in Sarajevo. We invited guests from Serbia, Albania and Macedonia, and guests from JICA Tokyo headquarter also joined the seminar. The ambience at the beginning of the seminar was little bit disturbing as we just received the news about tsunami that hit Kobe. The organizer of the seminar and coordinator for eco-tourism group, Melika Arifhodzic, opened the seminar with words of hope for soon recovery of this part of Japan. We were honored to have Ambassador of Japan Mr. Futao Motai with us in for the first part of the seminar, which consisted of presentations of hosts and guests participants. We have to say that our Japanese guests showed admiring steadiness not wanting to burden us even for a moment with anxiety with new and very hard and complicated situation in their country.
Local participants on the seminar came from various institutions and organizations: Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations, Ministry of Tourism and Environment, Ministry of physical engineering and environmental protection of Sarajevo Canton, tourism boards in Federation and tourism organizations in RS, as well as representatives of travel agencies, and other organizations who deal with this type of tourism. Seminar had an exceptional media coverage which further proves the fact about the public interest on this topic.
The seminar lasted two days, and the first day was reserved for presentations about eco tourism in general and position of eco tourism in their respective countries. After the presentations, a discussion about urgent issues from this sector was opened. The general conclusion was that the countries in the region have to further work on improving conditions for eco tourism development, such as increasing the level of protected areas, development of tourism product, standardization in eco tourism accommodation, etc. there were also mentioning of misuse and abuse of eco tourism term.
The second day was a working day, where participants were divided into groups for the purpose of defining advantages and obstacles and suggesting of joint activities in eco tourism development.
Generally supported idea was to create a joint eco tourism regional platform which would gather all interested parties in the region and act promotionally toward tourism market.