News

Bulgaria is among the seven most favourite skiing destinations visited every year by British tourists, a research by SkiClub of Great Britain reveals.

About one million British go overseas to ski every year, mainly in the French Alpes, where a third of all British ski-fans spend their winter holidays, the data show up.

Bulgaria has attracted 21.96 % more tourists in January 2004 compared to the same period last year, Economy Ministry released on Friday. A total of 195,544 tourists have chosen Bulgaria as their January-holiday destination.

New 80 km of ski tracks will gird on Bulgaria's highest Rila Mountain. The project provides for building a whole tourism complex Samokov-Borovetz-Beli Iskar expanding to the northern mountain slopes covered with new ski-track facilities.

A unique for Europe 25-km-long ski track is going to connect the town of Samokov, in the outskirts of the Borovetz resort, to the Ice Lake, claiming to become its business card to the world.

Bulgaria's Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg visited Borovetz on Sunday to discuss with local authorities the implementation of the project, estimated roughly at EUR 100-150 M.

It was once the epitome of grim Communist uniformity, but Bulgaria is emerging as this year's hot destination for British tourists.

Sales figures indicate that up to 200,000 Britons will travel to the Balkan nation's Black Sea resorts this summer, where the attractions include cheap drink, large sandy beaches and temperatures in the 80s.

One will find the freshest seafood here. The holidaymakers look for unguarded beaches, where they do not have to pay for sunshades and chaise lounges.

Bulgaria's revenues from international tourism totalled BGN 706 M by the end of July, up by 9,2% in comparison with the same period last year, data of the Bulgarian Central Bank shows.

Over 2.7 million foreign tourists had their holidays in Bulgaria in the first 6 months of 2005. This is what the report of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MCT), introduced to the Bulgarian cabinet reads. The number of foreign holiday-makers has increased by 7% compared to the same period of 2005.

Half of the holiday-makers, who visited Bulgaria come from the EU countries, the report points out. The number of British tourists has gone up by 42%, for the Spanish holiday-makers it is by 38% higher, while for the Scandinavians - over 30%. At present, the hotels along the Bulgarian Black Sea coast are 100% full, while the revenues from tourism by the end of July are 706 million levs - (1euro=1.95levs). This is by 9.2% more compared to the same period of 2003, the MCT report registers.

The world's largest Kempinski Hotel opened this weekend in Golden Sands, a posh Bulgarian resort on the Black Sea side.

More than 600 high-profile persons enjoyed the opening party of the Kempinski Hotel Grand Hermitage. Live performances by the Anguel Zebarski quartet and jazz pros Vassil Petrov and Hilda Kazasyan added to the high spirits.

Grand Hermitage, rising on a hill with a breath-taking view over the sea, has 730 rooms. Almost half of those are already providing comfort and relaxation to international tourists.

Bulgaria is to introduce a unified tourism register by the end of 2006, Head of Tourism Agency Biser Yalamov announced Friday.

Currently the agency's register features over 450 hotels of 2-star quality or higher. Another 100 hotels have applied for receiving a quality category, it became clear.

State and branch representatives from the tourism sector joined the Friday Open Doors initiative in Golden Sands Black Sea resort.

They discussed up-to-date problems, concerning resorts' services quality. It emerged that according to statistics most frequently foreign tourists complain about the noise at the restaurants, as well as about the streets being overcrowded with cars and stalls.

The number of tourists visiting Bulgaria has increased by 5.6% in the first six months of the year.

Over June alone the growth rate was 11.5%, the International Committee on Tourism informed.

Tourists from Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, Germany, UK and Turkey have been the keenest to visit the country, statistics show.