Tourism in Trebinje in numbers
Tourism in Trebinje has been growing faster in recent years than the official figures can show. The town had a record season in 2024, most overnight stays are by foreign guests, and a large share of the activity in private accommodation still never reaches the statistics. This is an overview of what is known, where the data comes from and what it means for accommodation owners.
2024: a record year
According to the Trebinje Tourist Board, 2024 was the best tourist year so far: 230,710 overnight stays were registered in the town, 14.74% more than in 2023.
These are registered overnight stays, that is, those reported by accommodation providers. As we will see below, that is only part of the real activity.
Where guests come from
About 74% of registered overnight stays in 2024 were by foreign guests. Most came from Serbia (51%), followed by Turkey (17%) and Montenegro (7%).
For owners this has a very practical consequence: most guests come from outside, so accommodation is searched for and booked online, often in a foreign language. A listing, description and communication in several languages are not an extra — they are the basis.
2025: the Tourist Board's estimate
For 2025 the Trebinje Tourist Board estimates between 215,000 and 216,000 registered overnight stays, slightly below the record 2024. Final figures for the whole year have yet to be published, so this number should be read as an estimate rather than a final result.
Registered and real
The most interesting figure is not the number of overnight stays itself, but the gap between registered and real activity. Only 40 to 50 properties regularly report their overnight stays, while there are about 700 accommodation properties in Trebinje on Booking. The Tourist Board estimates that the town sees 500,000 to 600,000 overnight stays a year, of which only about a third are officially registered.
In other words, Trebinje is a bigger tourist destination than the statistics show, and most of that invisible activity takes place precisely in private accommodation: flats, apartments and houses.
How to read these numbers
Tourism statistics mostly talk about two things. An arrival is one guest checking into accommodation, and an overnight stay is one night one guest spends there. A family of four staying three nights makes four arrivals and twelve overnight stays. That is why overnight stays are a better measure of real activity than the number of guests.
The number of properties on a platform, on the other hand, says nothing about how many of them are active all year, or how many guests each of them receives. Such a figure shows the size of the supply, not occupancy. The estimate of the real number of overnight stays is exactly that — an estimate — and it serves to show the order of magnitude, not an exact amount.
Trebinje in the picture of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The same pattern can be seen at the national level. According to the Agency for Statistics of BiH, tourists made 1,963,443 arrivals and 4,083,977 overnight stays in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2025, and 70.3% of overnight stays were by foreign guests. The most overnight stays by foreign guests were by guests from Croatia (14.1%), Serbia (10.9%) and Turkey (9.7%).
As much as 93.7% of registered overnight stays in BiH were in hotels and similar accommodation. Private accommodation is therefore almost invisible in the official statistics, even though most owners work in it. We have set out broader data on the region and the short-term rental market on the investors page.
What the numbers mean for owners
- Demand is real. The town records hundreds of thousands of overnight stays a year, and according to the Tourist Board's estimate the real activity is about three times the registered figure.
- Competition is strong. About 700 properties on one platform means guests have a choice. The difference comes from presentation, accurate availability and satisfied guests.
- Guests come from outside. About three quarters of overnight stays are by foreign guests, so languages, clear rules and good communication are part of the basic offer.
- The market is still taking shape. While much of the activity remains informal, an owner who keeps a clear calendar, income and costs has the advantage.
Trebistan, the local accommodation platform for Trebinje, has more than 60 active properties today — roughly one in every twelve accommodation properties in the town. We have described how to start renting out in Trebinje, step by step, in our guide to renting out an apartment in Trebinje.
Sources
- Trebinje Tourist Board, data for 2024 and the estimate for 2025, as reported by the news portals Glas Zemlje Hercegove (January 2025) and Trebinje Live (January 2026).
- Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tourism, cumulative January–December 2025.
Do you have accommodation in Trebinje and want to rent it out, or hand the work over to someone else? See what renting out your apartment with us looks like, or list your property right away. We get back to you personally, and registering commits you to nothing.