Lonely Planet Puts Sarajevo in 43rd Place on its Best Cities List

www.sarajevo.ba

16 March 2006

Lonely Planet, one of the biggest publishers of travel books in the world, named Sarajevo the 43rd Best City in the World for 2006, in the latest edition of its Best Cities Book. The Lonely Planet authors selected 200 most interesting, attractive and comfortable cities to live in.

The first place on the list was given to Paris, followed by New York, Sidney, Barcelona and London. Sarajevo is the highest ranking city in former Yugoslavia, followed by Dubrovnik (59th place), Ljubljana (84th place), Zagreb (125th place) and Belgrade (143rd) place.

Semiha Borovac, the Mayor of Sarajevo, said that the inclusion of B&H capital in the list is a recognition of the efforts of the city and its citizens, but it is also a motive to continue the work to improve the overall image of Sarajevo.

Sarajevo is best known to the world for three events: the Sarajevo Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, one of the direct casus belli of the WWI; the Winter Olympic Games 1984; and the longest siege of a state capital in history. Sarajevo should, believe Borovac, turn to its natural potential, above all its tourist potentials.

�I will make every effort to bring to this city the prestigious skiing competitions to our Olympic Mountains, which is a necessary condition to bring back the Olympic Torch back to Sarajevo and win the organizations of Winter Games once again�, said Borovac and added that Sarajevo needs to use all its potentials for various forms of tourism.

The Cities Book views each of the 200 cities included in the list through the eyes of its citizens � what is the talk of the town, the local legends, advantages and disadvantages of a given city, the best places to eat or drink, the nightlife. The book also lists the vital statistics, the history of each city and the legends of how they came to be.