News

Bansko municipality was on its way to select a company responsible for the planning of a ski zone close to Dobrinishte village.

The value of first project phase is expected to reach 66 600 leva and it should be finalised by December 20, Dnevnik newspaper reported.

Dobrinishte Ski Zone in its entirety should be completed within three years. The entire project costs 260 million leva.

New tendencies in the vacation property market in Bulgaria were to be expected, agents said during the Southeast European economic forum that began on October 31.

Vacation property demand in the central parts of the country was going to increase, mediapool.bg reported. The demand would be highest in villages known for spa treatment opportunities.

 A new law on tourism is expected to be drafted by the end of November, Mario al-Djebouri, head of the State Agency for Tourism (SAT) announced on October 20.

The proposed bill aims to regulate hostels and apartment complexes and information centres. Its scope will include animators, tour guides, ski instructors and mountain guides. The law is expected to create more opportunities for public-private partnerships in Bulgaria’s tourism sector.

The SAT is also seeking changes to a controversial ordinance on the star-rating of tourist facilities that threatened to downgrade some of the evaluations of Bulgaria’s major hotels. These changes, which will apply only to hotels built before November 30 2004, will allow existing five-star hotels to avoid a downgrade.

The changes were prompted by criticism from Sofia’s upscale hotels, many of which are part of international chains like Hilton, Kempinski and Sheraton. The Sofia Hilton even took court action to preserve its rating.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I’d see skiing like this in Bulgaria,” Borislav Kostourkov, a Bulgarian journalist and skier admitted on his first visit to Bansko, the country’s newest and best resort.

Last winter, I joined Kostourkov and other members of the Ski Club of International Journalists, some 200 journalists from 32 countries, to ski the Bansko slopes in the Pirin mountain range.

These are top skiers who have conquered the world’s big-name resorts — and all of them were most impressed.

The run from the top of the resort, at 8,500 feet, to the bottom, at 3,000 feet, is about 10½ miles long with a vertical drop of 5,500 feet. When you reach the bottom, your legs are burning.

“There’s nowhere in the States that you can do that,” said an Austrian journalist who once taught skiing in Michigan

Bulgaria's coastal airports have undertaken different measures to ease the
passengers' serving process.The Transport Ministry announced that two additional desks have been opened
at the Burgas Airport "International lines - Departure". The new desks are
equipped with automatic check-in and the luggage system and the X-ray
apparatus.Part of the served passengers will be redirected to the second floor of the
airport where they will be able to wait for their flight after passing the
border and customs checks. The airport offers to the passengers improved
conditions, the ministry explained.

BULGARIA is on course to join the European Union next year - and that\'s fuelling a massive property boom.New blocks of holiday homes are springing up beside the pure white beaches of its Black Sea beauty spots and in mountain ski resorts like Bansko. Prices are rising but still remarkably good value, if you are careful.CANNY investors should get in quick if they want to cash in on the Balkan beauty that is Bulgaria.Its popularity as a tourist destination is rising fast while interest in buying homes in the country is growing with the approach of EU membership.Property here offers the double opportunity of being a good investment and providing a good rental income.The country is easy to get to with just a two-and-a-half hour flight and cheap fares from a choice of British airports.Estate agent said: "It's a great prospect for anyone looking to invest their money abroad. Big businesses and holidaymakers will take a growing interest in it once it becomes an EU member state."That can only be good for people with property in the area."

Tour operators from the United Arab Emirates are interested in selling Bulgarian holiday packages, Bulgarian ambassador to UAE Milen Keremedchiev said in the sidelines of the ongoing Arabian Travel Market fair. The number of UAE visits to Bulgaria rose 30% in '05 but the tourist traffic is still negligible. One of the obstacles facing the UAE tour operators is the lack of direct flights between Dubai and Sofia.

The construction boom that began in Bulgaria’s resort of Bansko a few years ago is rapidly being matched by that in the other two main Bulgarian ski resorts, Borovets and Pamporovo, according to an article in Bulgarian-language daily 24 Chassa.
The increase in prices had attracted an increasing number of investors. The municipalities “willingly” issued permits but the resorts were becoming over-saturated.
Samokov municipality had issued 18 permits for the construction of hotels and villa complexes in Borovets ski resort, 24 Chassa said. Some of the property already had been sold before it was even built, 24 Chassa said.
Samokov municipality would invest nine million leva in infrastructure at Borovets. Construction of new lifts would probably begin in the autumn, the article said. One of the lifts would connect the town of Samokov with Borovets, and the other one would transport tourists higher in the mountain.

Buy-to-lets in Bulgaria are gaining ground as tourism levels reach an all-time high, real estate experts comment."The tourism boom is having a knock-on effect on the buy-to-let market," says Quest Bulgaria, English language monthly magazine about Bulgaria and Bulgarian property.A three bed-roomed coastal villa now enjoys an average rental price of GBP 550 per week giving a gross income of GBP 5,500 a year if it is rented out for a ten-week period. A rural three-bed-room villa fetches an average GBP 350 a week; a city or coastal apartment GBP 250.

Bulgaria plans to invest over one billion leva in enlarging Borovets ski resort with 140 km of ski tracks and with new hotels having accommodation capacity of over 25 000 beds.Samokov mayor Angel Nikolov said that the municipality was also planning the construction of a new resort in the region alongside the Iskar River. In a few years Samokov, a town located close to Borovets, would have a large business park and a modern apartment complex, Capital newspaper said