News

  After a two-year absence, German travel company ITS has decided to include a couple of Bulgaria's ski resorts in its winter '06-'07 catalogue, said the tour operator's local representative Kalin Sutev.

  ITS, which will share with German peer TUI seats on the flights of Bulgarian carrier Air Via, will resume business with ski resorts Borovets and Bansko, said Sutev.

  The company will market Pamporovo because it is unable to ensure on its own or in partnership with other tour operators sufficient passenger load for charter flights to Plovdiv, the closest aerial gateway to the Bulgarian ski resort. The only other option is to bus the tourists from the Sofia International Airport to Pamporovo, a trek that has proven unpopular in the past, said Sutev.

  In 2003, a total of 2,500 Germans booked ski holidays in Bulgaria through ITS, down from around 3,000 the year before.

  Following the pullout of ITS a couple of years ago, two other travel majors - TUI and Thomas Cook, also dropped Pamporovo from their portfolios. The owners of hotels in Pamporovo said at the time this was the first sign that tour operators are shifting their business to Bansko and Borovets due to their proximity to the Sofia airport.Therefore the hotel owners hope urgent measures will be taken to modernise the Plovdiv airport.

  The investment in infrastructure for Bulgaria’s leading winter resorts Borovets, Bansko and Pamporovo in the past couple of years has produced most of the hotels and ski equipment required. This season, significantly less investment in the sphere was needed. The bulk of investors are currently targeting the further development of already existing infrastructure.

  At the same time, winter resorts remain the subject of significant investor interest on behalf of construction companies. Hundreds of permits for the creation of hotels and vacation villages have already been given.

  Fast construction, however, will make fast infrastructure creation more urgent. Even now concessionaires and investors will be forced to provide new ski tracks and lifts to accommodate the needs of the expected higher number of tourists, Dnevnik newspaper reported.

  Data shows in previous years most investors worked on Borovets and Bansko. This season Pamporovo will attract the most investment. The resort will start the season with an additional five km ski track.

  The finance ministry and the delegation of the European Commission signed on Wednesday, January 11, the financial memorandums for 133.2 mln euro in aid from EU's ISPA program.
The Bulgarian side will provide 80 mln euro in co-financing. The resource will be divided among the projects for the renovation and expansion of the sewerage infrastructure in Sofia, Bourgas, Rousse, Sliven and Kyustendil, the modernisation of the wastewater treatment plants in the 5 cities and the construction of new plants where that is necessary.

  Money has also been allocated for technical assistance for the modernisation of the Vidin-Sofia railway and for the rehabilitation of the Plovdiv-Bourgas and Mezdra-Gorna Oryahovitsa railways.
Loan-financing will be provided by EBRD,18.9 mln euro, and the EIB, 12 mln euro.
The funding should be absorbed over the next 3 years, said finance minister Plamen Oresharski.

  With the increased availability of cheap flights and the current popularity of relocation television programmes, property investors from the UK are becoming increasingly adventurous as they look for the perfect property.

  In an assessment of the current European property market, the Independent has suggested that Bulgaria has now become a genuine alternative to France and Spain as an estimated 80,000 Britons make the decision to purchase a second home in the coming months.

  Peter Esders, a partner at law firm John Howell & Co, states that because some people are solely interested in a holiday home while others will want either capital growth or income, it is impossible to isolate an individual area as the "best" choice for property investment.

  Nonetheless, he indicated that the rapid rise to prominence of a number of Eastern European markets had led to a shift in the usual emphasis.

  "Spain and France are still popular - but probably not as much as they used to be because of these new countries," said Mr Esders.

  Bulgaria's population has increased by three since 2005, two men and one woman. In August, archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology discovered two additional tombs on Cape Kaliakra, during a site excavation. The tombs are thought to be from the country's early Christian period (seventh-eighth century CE) according to the uncoverers, and from the same family, but buried at different times.

  Instead of trying to privatise the national rails of iron, the country can put on public display a mediaeval sword. The weapon was found at the site of the two tombs and is particularly prized because such weapons are rarely found.

  Six point three more inches of gold and platinum have now been added to the country's miles of wealth. The dagger, found in August in an ancient Thracian complex near the village of Dabene, central Bulgaria, is believed to be 5000 years old.

  On the 500th day of Christmas my true love gave to me 500 tiny gold rings. The pieces of what appeared to be ancient jewelery were found at the same site as the dagger in August. Other finds include a small golden plaque, silver vessels, bronze and silver ritual knives and ancient pottery.

  Complementing the country's widespread construction, site exploration continues at Sostra, in northern Bulgaria. Unlike Bulgaria, however, Sostra's population and buildings are no longer functioning, having ceased civilization about 1500 years ago. Near Troyan in the northern part of the country, the ancient settlement sits on a Roman military road and spans the Danube and Phillipopolis, the present-day city of Plovdiv. While Sostra was first heard of in modern times from Hungarian traveller Felix Kanits in the late 19th century, current excavation of the site only began in 2002. Archaeological team leader Ivan Hristov from the National Museum of History said that so far, Sostra has been revealed to have a castello, a few civilian settlements, necropolis and more. Basically, it was a mid-second century to end-fifth century small Roman town. He said that the name derives from the Greek work “sostrum”, meaning a bandage or a waist-band; this perfectly describes Sostra, as it lay in a valley of the River Ossum, blocking unchecked access to the roads leading to Phillipopolis. The settlement had a rather violent history, with it being destroyed by the Huns in the late fifth century. “It was only in the late Middle Ages and the early National Revival period that settlements and roadside inns began to be built again along the River Ossum,” he said. “Sostra itself covers an area of four sq km, and was never densely populated. There is a crafts and trades quarter and a civilian settlement, called Vikus. The castello, in the shape of a diamond, is of an impressive size of 130 by 130m. The fortress walls, having sunk two metres in the ground, are presently uncovered.”

  A few days since Bulgaria enjoys its accession to the EU, the annual international conference Bulgaria Dream Area has been the first business event to landmark the new realities.

  The sixth edition of the conference to run January 10-11 at Kempinski Hotel Zografski, in Sofia, will focus the eyes back on tourism, one of the country's most fast developing and promising sector.

  "Tourism is a sector has earned enormous progress in the last ten years, but it still fails to engage all the potential of this country and its people," said Bob Miller, former Nevada governor and a long-time friend of Bulgaria.

  The event will be opened by Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev on Wednesday. Words of welcome will be said also by Sofia Mayor Boyko Borissov, Stanislav Novakov from the state Tourism Authority and Mathieu Hoeberigs from the Tourism Unit of the European Commission.

  The event will gather for the first times the tourism ministers from the Balkan region. They will consider the opportunities for further development and exchange of experience between Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, Macedonia, Slovenia, Croatia, Turkey, as well as Ukraine.

  Framed by the window of my seventh-floor attic studio, just on the outer limit of today’s 10-meter visibility, is the silhouette of a lone construction worker devouring a cigarette atop the roof of an almost-ready new apartment building that has risen on what was an empty plot four months ago when I moved in. So even the fog cannot obscure the rapid, abundant and dense construction that has marked, and some would say scarred, Bulgaria’s urban landscapes in 2006.

  You name it, we are building it. Sofia’s first three malls opened in 2006, and a flurry of shopping center construction activity followed suit. In its October 2006 issue, PropertyWise quoted analysts saying that with a population of 1.5 million, Sofia could absorb four or five big malls. If that is true, the capital city will reach a point of saturation very soon, when Bulgaria Mall opens in the next few months.

  So either analysts got it wrong, or investors are going overboard, because there are plans for 10 additional malls to open in Sofia alone by 2010.

  Neither off-the-mark projections, nor over-development are foreign to the property market.

  Citizens of Razlog and Bansko will block the road from Simitli to Gotse Delchev in a protest against the introduction of Natura 2000 ecological network.

  Nearly 11 000 people from Razlog and 4000 people from Bansko signed a petition against Natura 2000, Focus news agency reported.

  People protested against the manner in which officials handled the inclusion of terrains in the European ecological network.

  Razlog is going to host a Natura 2000 meeting to which a number of officials have been invited. The President, Water and Environment Minister and Parliament members all received invitations.

  In case the invited officials fail appearing, the citizens of the two towns will start protesting. Only an MP from the United Democratic Forces (UtDF) has confirmed participation so far.

  Valeri Vulchev, Real Estate Managing Partner

  The Bulgarian commercial property market has experienced dynamic development in all sectors, with trends varying greatly in terms of growth cycle, performance, investor interest, and geographic location. Modern quality supply has registered robust growth, with most of the activity concentrated in the office and retail sectors of the market. However, modern-standing investment stock is still limited in supply, with the retail and industrial sectors of the market offering the greatest investment potential.

  Office market is most likely going to reach its stage of maturity in 2006, as about 200 000 sq m of office space is in the pipeline, and another 100 000 sq m is at the project design phase. Yet, there are unexploited niches with enormous market potential, where demand for the right product in the right location is huge. Thus investment timing and location will continue to be of major importance. With Bulgaria’s ranking at 15th position among the top outsourcing destinations in A. T. Kearney’s index, the country is expected to attract substantial level of investments in the services sector, which will increase demand for quality office premises.

  2005 and 2006 have appeared to be the long awaited turning point in the retail property sector of the market. The first three malls that will provide a combined modern retail space in excess of 100 000 sq m are awaiting completion, and will put under pressure some of the prime high-street locations. These are: Mall of Sofia that will offer 54 000 sq m of retail space; Sofia City Centre Mall with about 31 000 sq m of retail space, and Sky City Mall with 16 000 sq m of retail space.

  Two opportunities for construction of an airport in Pirin Mountain are already being discussed, after the mayor of Bansko municipal announced that the region needs a runway for charters with foreign tourists and for private planes.
One of the offers is that the airport should be built in Razlog valley and the other one is for reconstruction of the already existing military airport nearby Gotse Delchev.
This project can be fulfilled after 10 years, but it is necessary. Just in Bansko municipal the total number of beds by 2010 will be 15 thousand for tourists. Dobrinishte resort is also developing with extremely fast temps. The neighboring municipal- Razlog is just 5 kilometers away, but is being formed as a tourism center”, said Alexander Kravarov.
  A huge golf complex is now being constructed just 10 kilometers away from Bansko in Betlovoto site near Razlog.
Over 10 huge balneal complexes will be constructed in Dobrinishte and Banya. This region has the potential to develop as an all season winter destination, thanks to the mineral springs.