News

“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."

Spanish hotel operator http://www.barcelo.com Barcelo Hotels and Resorts has inked a management contract with Galaxy Property Group, under which Barcelo will become the manager of a 5-star hotel complex in Bulgarian resort Sunny Beach.Galaxy, developer of the Royal Garden hotel complex, will complete construction works in 2007. The complex will have six residential buildings, a hotel and retail outlets. Among add-on facilities are a 9,000 sq m park, six restaurants, squash and tennis facilities, swimming pools, tanning saloons and a medical care unit.

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.

More and more Russian tourists choose to visit Finland and Bulgaria in the summer rather than going to Turkey.

Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, director of the Federal Tourism Agency, was cited by the Russian online edition "Finansovi izvestia" as saying that since the beginning of the year the number of tourists coming to Russia has gone up by 11% due to the growing number of Bulgarian and Finnish tourists.

Bulgaria's tourism industry is one of the country's fastest developing economic sectors.

Bourgas Airport at the south of Bulgaria's seaside is currently negotiating with 8 low-cost air carriers that are willing to open flights to the hot tourist destination.
Kalin Barzov, head of the airport in the seaside city told Darik News that there are currently three low-cost flyers that service the airport - Wizz Air, Sky Europe and Nordvision Air Shuttle.
With such companies landing at Bourgas Airport, the situation will change drastically, for now the tourist hotspot is just about two hours away from anywhere in Europe, Barzov said.

After Bulgaria's accession to the EU corporate tax in the country will be reduced from 15% to 10%, the lowest in the Union. This is a significant step that will undoubtedly make Bulgaria's economy more competitive. After the reduction of corporate tax a lot of companies will not even think of avoiding paying it, thus making the gray economy shrink. The beneficial effects of lowering the tax became evident after the first reduction in 2005, when it was set at 15%.Recent studies of the connection between corporate tax and wages show that a reduction of the tax by one percent leads to a one percent increase of salaries. This effect is even stronger for small and open economies like the Bulgarian. Therefore, it is safe to say that next year the expected growth of wages will be around 30-50%.

Profiteers cede their territory to investment funds
"Foreign investment funds are among the few potential buyers of hotels in Bulgaria. The Spanish Chamber of Hotel-Keepers and English investment funds have already shown interest in tourist sites in Bulgaria," Blagoi Ragin, Chairman of the Bulgarian Hotel and Restaurant Association (BHRA) states.

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.