CROSS BORDER COOPERATION BETWEEN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA AND SERBIA IN THE CASE OF TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN MUNICIPALITIES OF MIDDLE PODRINJE

Abstract

It is widely recognized today that tourism with all of its impacts penetrates in every segment of social and economic development of many modern countries. Tourism has emphasized direct, indirect and multiplicative effects on economic development. That is the reason for increasingly high attention to him in a racent years, especially in the aspect of its contribution to comprehensible regional and national development. This paper object is the cross border cooperation between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia in the case of tourism development in the municipal areas of Višegrad, Srebrenica, Bratunac and Zvornik on the Bosnian side of the border, and municipalities of Bajina Bašta, Ljubovija and Mali Zvornik on the eastern bank of Drina River (Serbian side). River Drina has central location in Western Balkans, hydrographically belonging to the drainage basins of Sava and Danube rivers. Its drainage basin connects areas of Eastern Bosnia and Western Serbia. The aim of this paper is tourism resources analysis and their delimitation between two countries. For the purpose of tourism resources delimitation, tourism-geographical and economic concepts are examined and used for determination of dominant motives. Guidelines for more effective coordination in the multiple mutual issues in the context of tourism development at the level of cross border cooperation, establishment of tourism destinations of mutual interests, as well as achievement of more effective comprehensible economic development of both countries are given in this paper.