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 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.
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