Bosna i Hercegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country on the Balkan peninsula of southern Europe with an area of 51,129 km². The country is a homeland to three ethnic "constituent peoples": Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats.

Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the south, Bosnia and Herzegovina is landlocked, except for 20 km of the Adriatic Sea coastline, centered around the town of Neum. The interior of the country is heavily mountainous and divided by various rivers, most of which are nonnavigable. The nation's capital and largest city is Sarajevo.

Bosnia itself is the chief geographic region of the modern state, with a moderate continental climate, consisting of hot summers and cold snowy winters. Herzegovina is the southern tip of the country, known for its starkly Mediterranean climate and topography.

The major cities are the capital Sarajevo, Banja Luka in the northwest region known as Bosanska Krajina, Bijeljina and Tuzla in the northeast, Zenica in the central part of Bosnia and Mostar, the capital of Herzegovina.

The south part of Bosnia has Mediterranean climate and a great deal of agriculture. Central Bosnia is the most mountainous part of Bosnia featuring predominate mountains Vlasic, Cvrsnica, and Prenj. Eastern Bosnia also features mountains like Trebevic, Jahorina, Igman, Bjelasnica and Treskavica. It was here that the Olympic games were held in 1984.

BiH has been a top performer in recent years in terms of tourism development; tourist arrivals have grown by an average of 24% annually from 1995 to 2000 (360,758 in 2002). According to an estimation of the World Tourism Organization, BiH will have the third highest tourism growth rate in the world between 1995 and 2020. The major sending countries in 2002 have been Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Germany, Italy, United States, Poland, United Kingdom, Austria, and Spain.

---