Canton Sarajevo Assembly: Adopted Amendments on the Law on Tourism of Canton Sarajevo and the Law on Proclaiming Bentbaša Landsacape a Protected Area

English

The representatives of the Canton Sarajevo Assembly adopted the amendments of the Law on Tourism which regulate membership payments, tourist fees. The amendments were followed by the Decision on the establishment of the Tourist Association of Canton Sarajevo. The other reason for the amendments are some evident difficulties concerning the inapplicableness of certain provisions.

Because of the tourism expansion, promotion and development plan it was necessary to adopt this Law which regulates membership payments as is the case in other cantons.

As Minister of economy of Canton Sarajevo Muharem Šabić explained, the Law prescribes that membership fee will vary according to the legal status of the payer. Based on that, members will pay fees in following percentages: legal entities 0,05 percent and natural persons 0,025 percent.

The membership fee will be payed to the Tourist Association. The payer whose membership fee amounts to more than 300 BAM.

The means collected from membership fees payed into the account of Canton Sarajevo will be distributed into the Tourist Association account. With the evidence on membership fee payment, payers shall deliver a form of membership fee calculation which shows the headquarters of the payer.

The law prescribes penalties, for example, a legal entity will be fined with a penalty of 700 to 7,000 BAM if he fails to pay membership fee within the prescribed deadline.

Minister Šabić said that the intention is to regulate the tourism sector and normalize it, and with this goal in mind the new Tourist Association has been established. He also said that in Canton Sarajevo there is an increase of the number of tourists by 20 percent and there will be more investments in this sector, especially in tourist destination development.

The Strategy of Tourism Development in Canton Sarajevo is in its final stages and it will be one of the basic acts for the making of plans for the next year. Along with the amendments of this law, it is our attention to regulate the tourism sector by following the model of other mayor european cities”, said Minister Šabić.

The Assembly also adopted the Law on Proclaiming Bentbaša Landscape a Protected Area.

The total surface of the protected area is 160.9 hectares and it is divided into two zones: First zone – Nucleus (the most valuable area) with the surface of 16.9 hectares and the Second zone – Buffer zone as a protective zone of the Nucleus with the surface of 144 hectares.

The Bentbaša area has a high level of biological, geomorphological and hydrological diversities and cultural and historical values.

Because of a high number of endemic species, the area is one of the richest areas in the area of Bosnian and Herzegovina Dinarides.

With the protected area of Bentbaša, Canton Sarajevo will have a total of 5 landscapes similar to this one, with the areas of Trebević, Bijambare, Vrelo Bosne and Skakavac which are managed by the Cantonal Public Institution for Protected Natural Areas, By this, we are fulfilling obligations in the process of European integration in this field.