News

  When it comes to winter destinations, Bulgaria and Switzerland are increasingly stealing the show. Stephen Wood finds out why

What Switzerland and Bulgaria have in common is recently becoming more attractive to British skiers. Neither is in the same league as France and Austria; but last season they enjoyed a greater proportional growth in their business with the main UK tour operators - compared with 2004/5 - than any other European destinations. Bulgaria is by far the more intriguing, since its growth is in part a consequence of economic trends and business strategies way beyond its borders. Switzerland's performance seems to be more a case of virtue getting its reward.

The quote about Bulgaria from the Good Skiing Guide is, I admit, misleading. It's from the 1994 edition of the now defunct guide, whose successor, the Great Skiing & Snowboarding Guide, has kinder things to say. A dozen years ago the country provided merely bargain-basement skiing to people who probably did know - from the price they paid - what they were letting themselves in for. In that earlier incarnation as a ski destination, Bulgaria's characteristics included (to take some examples of the 1994 guide's critique) poor piste-grooming, queuing problems, "the same monotonous fodder every day" and a scarcity of loo paper. Just how grim conditions were on skiing's eastern front I can't say - I avoided Bulgaria in that era. Recently, though, it's been too interesting to resist, and last year I visited Bansko, now the country's major international resort.

 “Investments in the building sector next year are expected to be 5,4 billion BGN”. This was the prognosis of the participants in an international, scientific conference entitled “building development and property” at the Economic University in Varna. The event was organized by the economic and property management department of the university.

Construction investments in the country are around 42% of the total volume of investments and the annual growth of the building sector in Bulgaria is 13,8%. The prognosis for 2007 was calculated on this basis.

According to Dr Ivan Jelev PhD, the future of investment activity is in industrial projects. The fact that there are many appropriate plots and old buildings ready to be reconstructed could gradually turn Varna into the Bulgarian Silicone Valley.

Some 80% of the guests of local spa and wellness hotels and resorts are Bulgarians with mostly Brits and Germans making up the remainder, found a survey of 900 spa tourists conducted by the State Tourism Agency.

Away form the home market, the Bulgarian spa industry is targeting Russia, the UK, Germany and Denmark.

The survey found that Russian spa tourists vacationing in Bulgaria are middle-class and look for quality service. British guests are mid to lower class, looking for new experiences. Germans are also middle class attracted by the good remedial and therapeutic repute of the local spa facilities. The Danish participants in the survey singled out affordability as the main selling point of Bulgarian spa resorts.

Some 60% of respondents gave excellent marks to the Bulgarian spa product and the attentiveness of the staff. Half of the respondents said they got good value for their money. Almost all respondents plan to repeat their visit.

The survey also found that 35% of the local spa and wellness hotels were built in 2000-2004 while over 60% were renovated in 2005-2006.

 Independent presents the limited opportunity to reserve an exclusive suite in an exciting new project - Hotel Complex Perelik! Situated near the newest Bulgarian ski resort Perelik and consisting of 168 elegant studio, one, two and three bedroom homes and penthouses with fireplace, open-plan lifts and warm contemporary feel ranging from 25 to130 sqm.

Bulgaria has become a hot spot for both tourists and investors for the last few years. The forecast for the next five years is rosy: officially confirmed EU membership in 2007, doubling of the funding for infrastructure projects to total € 6.85 billion in the next five years after the EU accession, significant decrease of Capital Gains Tax from 15% to 10% as of January 2007, adoption of the EURO and its interest rates (2009-2010), synchronization of the mortgage market with the European one leading to falling lending rates of 6.4% - 7% at present, as opposed to 16% - three years ago and expected to go as low as 5.2 by 2009. It is obvious that the economy is booming. The average GDP of 5% pa over the past seven years is placing the country amongst the ten top performing economies in Europe.
The tourist numbers for 2006 have shown two digit increase as opposed to previous years. The majority of visitors were Britons, Germans, Greeks, Irish, Russians, Scandinavians and Bulgarians.
That is why the agents have recognized Hotel Complex Perelik as an up and coming area with high potential for future growth of about 20-30% within the next 12 to 18 months as compared to 17.8% in Bulgaria overall. With average prices of € 950 to € 1,270 per sq.m for a stylishly finished luxury apartments the resort proves to be what Bansko and Pamporovo were two years ago.

     A lot of money is still needed for the development of Bulgarian tourism and this fact was proven by several things happening in the past week.

InvestBulgaria Agency executive director Stoyan Stalev on May 19 delivered a First Class Investment Certificate for an investment project to be implemented by Perelik Sports and Tourist Centre.

This is the third Bulgarian investor to get such a certificate.

The project envisages construction of an integrated system of winter and summer sports facilities, mountain accommodations and improvement of the infrastructure and spatial development in the land-use areas of Smolyan and the villages of Stoikite, Gela, Solishta, Stikul and Mougla (all in the Rhodope Mountains).

 The recent rapid expansion of Bulgaria’s ski areas has alarmed some environmental groups, who claim developers are ignoring environmental protection regulations and that government bodies are failing to enforce them adequately.

Keep the Mountain Pure...
Now the picturesque Majare village next to Borovets Ski Centre has started a campaign entitled “Keep The Mountain Pure – Respect The Mountain.” in a bid to clean up the image of the area.

The campaigners have erected notice boards around the village with information about the decomposing cycle or the natural degrading of rubbish which explains the ‘lifespan’ of the waste left by litter bugs in the area. The group have also started placing stickers with recycling logos in Bulgarian and English and with the motto ‘’Keep it pure!’’ on windows, car windows, shops etc.

A group spokesman said, “We are hoping that the movement for clean mountains will take off and be adopted elsewhere in Bulgaria, so that our beautiful country will become an even more desirable place.”

 On November 29 the National Electric Company (NEC) and Russia's Atomstroyexport will sign an agreement for the construction of Belene nuclear power plant (NPP).

NEC selected on October 30 Atomstroyexport as the project executor. Bulgaria received two offers for the project, one from the Russian company and one from the Czech Skoda Allianz.

The project envisions the construction of two 1000 megawatt units, Focus news agency reported.

Construction of the Belene power plant became even more necessary because of Bulgaria's commitment to shut down two units of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant. The reactor closure resulted from EU entry requirements.

 Low prices, long-term investment prospects and changes in lifestyle have fuelled record-high property sales in Bulgaria for 2006, a realtor data shows.

The year-end count of transactions is forecast to reach 260,000 at a combined value of more than EUR 5 B, according to figures of BulgarianProperties.com, partner of foreign property buyers in Bulgaria.

The experts comment that following the massive 25% to 30% annual capital gains of recent years, Bulgaria's property market is now showing a much more realistic growth rate of 15% so far this year, setting the pattern for more predictable and sustainable long-term investment.

EU membership in January next year, the nationwide development of major tourism and infrastructure projects, the planned expansion of low-cost airline routes in 2007 and mortgage facilities remain the main attraction for making a property purchase in Bulgaria.     

 Riding the gleaming blue Doppelmayr gondola up the Pirin mountains over a pine forest blanketed by overnight snow, it was easy to imagine we were in the French Tarentaise rather than Bulgaria. The meticulously groomed pistes and a final glorious descent in a bowl at the top of the ski area, through 15cms of light powder, did nothing to dispel the illusion.

It was the lunch bill that restored reality. A welcoming hut with honest mountain fare before a roaring log fire are essential components of the perfect skiing day. But in recent years the cost of a long lunch in the French or Swiss Alps has reached iniquitous heights. Even a modest meal at a waiter-service restaurant in Val d'Isère is £20 a head without drinks. In high-flying Courchevel the damage can easily be double.

Here it was a different story. £10 for two, with a decent bottle of local Cabernet Sauvignon? Surely some mistake. Back in Méribel it barely buys a soggy sandwich. A six-day lift pass costs £100 compared with £150 in the Trois Vallées. In town, a beer is 50-70p, chicken and chips £2. Last season the combination of rock-bottom prices and a high standard of mountain facilities made Bansko the hottest property in European skiing - and the trend seems set to continue. Bansko lies close to the Macedonian and Greek frontiers and on a clear day you can see the Aegean Sea.

Russians, Greeks and a prodigiously high number of British skiers and snowboarders flocked to the new resort a two-and-a-half hour drive south of Sofia. Many of them returned home with more than just memories, having bought their own ski homes at a tenth of prices in the French Alps. They have already made - on paper - a 10 per cent profit. You could still buy a studio at the base of the ski area for £40,000 while £80,000 secures a luxurious two-bedroom apartment.

For £15,000 you become the proud owner of a tumbledown stone-and-wood farmhouse in a nearby village such as Dobrinishte, although it would probably cost you at least twice that to do it up. In the days of the Ottoman Empire, Bansko was an important staging post on the caravan route from Constantinople to Thessaloniki.

More recently the ancient town, a quaint huddle of old stone buildings and cobbled streets with gaping storm drains, was better known for its school of Orthodox icon painting than for its pistes. All that changed five years ago when a Sofia-based property company finally took the step from which foreign investors had previously shied. Ulen spent £95million on making Bansko a modern ski resort, first building a state-of- the- art gondola, seven chairs, and three drags. A second gondola and more lifts are in the pipeline. (The present piste map is more a creative view of future development than currently available mountain transport.)

 Building permits were issued in all Bulgarian regions in the third quarter of 2006, indicating that investors are finally making their way to previously unfancied areas like North-western Bulgaria, Razgrad and Silistra, shows data of the national statistical authority.

Most of the permits were granted to residential and industrial developers.
Sofia has been pushed out of the top 3 of cities with the most number of new building permits and has fallen to no.5 in terms of built-up area of approved developments.
The biggest number of building permits were handed out in the Plovdiv region (498), followed by Burgas (476) and Varna (469). Pazardjik is just outside the top 5 with 176 permits.

Blagoevgrad leads the rankings in terms of biggest combined built-up area of new construction with 476,000 sq m, followed by Burgas with 434,000 sq m and Varna with 364,000 sq m.

A total of 2,661 permits were granted in the third quarter nation-wide versus 2,682 a year ago. The built-up area of newly approved developments is slightly up year-on-year, going from 1.5 mln sq m in Q3 '05 to 1.7 mln sq m in Q3 '06.