GENERAL INFORMATION

Date and venue

The Congress will be held from Thursday, September 11th till Saturday, September 13th 2003 at the Hoteli Morje Conference hall located in the centre of Portorož accesible from all major hotels within minutes.

Slovenia - your host country

The republic of Slovenia is situated in central Europe, in the south of limestone Alps, where different regions and climates meet. With two million residents, it has only a third the population of Denmark and is half the size of Switzerland, but its unique geographical position and easy accessibility make it a natural gateway between the rest of Europe, the Adriatic and the Balkan Peninsula. Particularly for the reason of its position many battles in the history took place here. This is a land of friendly people with magnificent scenery of crystal-clear mountain streams, rivers and lakes, lush green forests, wine growing districts, snow covered peaks, with thermal and mineral water springs and spas, and a large number of plants and even animal species endemic to this part of Europe only.

www.slovenia-tourism.si/ or www.matkurja.com/eng/

Geographic Position

There, where the Gulf of Triest as an organic part of the Adriatic Sea reaches at its most to the heart of Europe, lies the Slovenian Coast and Portorož. The Slovenian Coast borders to the two neighbouring countries: over the sea and on the eastern edge with Italy, on south with Croatia. In accordance with identification method applied to the big European cities, it could be said that Portorož lies somewhere between Venice and Vienna in the vicinity of Triest. Along the existing communication links, it is quite near to cities of Zagreb, Graz, Salzburg, Muenchen, Budapest.

Accessibility:

You can reach us by:

• land, on the highways from the directions of Triest and Ljubljana, and on the road from Pula,

• railway, railway station Koper ,

• air to Ljubljana, airport Brnik; to Triest, airport Ronchi (Italy), to Pula, airport Pula (Croatia) or nearby Sečovlje, airport Portorož,

• sea, to modern harbours, marinas Koper, Izola, Portorož and Piran .

Nearest road border crossings:

Sečovlje, Dragonja (Croatia), Škofije, Lazaret (Italy), Korensko sedlo, Karavanški predor (Austria). Sea border crossings Piran, Izola, Koper. The border crossings formalities are minimal and in accordance with the European standards. The citizens of the European Union countries and Switzerland may enter our country with a valid identity card, others with a valid passport.

Climate:

Portorož belongs with its sub-mediterranean climate among the warmest areas of Slovenia. There are many sunny days. The yearly average of the sunny days amounts to 2346 hours, the precipitations are scarce and range between 1000 and 1100 mm per year. The mild winters with temperatures very rarely below zero are characteristic, as well as not too hot summers. Due to that the visitors not able to support the severe heat of the southern parts of Mediterranean in summer, are the most frequent guests.

More information about Portorož: www.portoroz.si