CROATIAN TOURISM MINISTER VISITS SARAJEVO

SARAJEVO, 7 July (Hina) - Damage to Croatia's tourism will this year amount to between 1 and 1.4 billion dollars, Croatian Tourism Minister Ivan Herak said in Sarajevo on Wednesday. Herak made this a statement at a news conference held following talks with Branko Ivkovic, Trade Minister of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, representatives of several cantonal governments and Bosnia's leading tour-operators. Herak said Croatia counted on Bosnia-Herzegovina as one of its most important pre-war markets. In the last pre-war year, BH citizens accounted for 4.5 million overnight stays and in 1998 the number of those overnight-stays was 650,000, which is only 15% of the pre-war number, Herak said. Croatia still offers the best tourist product but the arrival of a larger number of BH tourists must be stimulated through better promotion and measures which should be adopted by the Croatian Government, Herak said. He announced that a Croatian Tourism Board office would soon be opened in Sarajevo. The Tourism Minister said he would suggest to the Government that the Value Added Tax rate in tourism be decreased from the current 22% to 10% and that customs and police procedures on the border with Bosnia-Herzegovina be accelerated during summer, so that long delays could be avoided. Croatia's Ambassador to BH, Damir Zoric, who also attended the news conference, said Croatia was willing to simplify the procedure of passing the state border during the tourist season, but at the moment it was not possible to allow passing the border only with an ID card, a request made the BH authorities. "Once border, customs and trade agreements between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina are signed, it will be an important incentive for tourism", Zoric said. (hina) rml