News

A new ski – center, spread over the area of 2000 sq.m. will be build in the ski resort of Byala Cherkva. This was announced yesterday by the mayor of Kuklen municipality, Dimitar Sotirov. The task to draw up an idea-conception is given to one of the architects of Bansko resort- architect Lekov by the management. The document is expected to be ready until the end of January.
The projects for the ski center have to be worked out over the next year. 6 or 7 ski runs are expected to be built with common length of 10 000 sq.m. They will be situated in the north-west part of the resort, where the snow stays until March, even until April. The displacement reaches up to 500 m. Some of the future ski runs are private area, but the municipality will offer to the owners exchanges. At this moment, there is only one ski slope in Byala Cherkva which is 1500 sq.m. long, it is now supported by the ski club of Plovdiv.
The municipality of Kuklen will involve private investitures in the realizing of the project, the EU funds will be asked for financial help as well.
The main goal of the project is for few years Byala Cherkva to be turned into a spirited ski-resort similar to Pamporovo and Borovets, but to be cheaper and popular also available for the citizens of Plovdiv

 
The cable car will carry 1000 persons per hour              

A lift will connect Smolyan with Pamporovo and the TV tower and Snejanka Tower. Very soon the locals and guests of the city will be able to use the cable car to reach Pamporovo. The project has already provoked huge investors’ interests, announced Dora Ynakova. Two project teams developed conceptions for the transport equipment, which will cost 25 million BGN. The cable car will be 7 km and will considerably shorten the distance between Smolyan and Pamporovo. The idea is that the first part of the lift will be 5 km long and will be 100% transport connection. It will start from Smolyan and will carry six tourists in a cabin. The distance to Raykovski Livadi site, where the middle station is situated will be taken for less than 10 minutes. The lift will than proceed to Snejanka peak, where the tourists will be able to directly downhill along the white slopes. Its length will be around 2, 4 km, and the capacity of the equipment will be around 1000 people per hour. The technical research is already completed. The mayor of Smolyan Dora Yankova hopes that the construction and the installation of the equipment will start together with the development of the resort main body “Raikovski Livadi”. The municipal council made a decision the hotels and villas to be not more than four floors, to preserve the nature and the natural land shaft of the terrain.

 An airport and new roads will attract investors, said the mayor Dora Yankova

- Mrs Yankova, what are the perspectives before Smolyan? Does the construction invasion of hotels in the Pamporovo resort, highlights higher standards for Smolyan itself?
- Our ambition is to transform Smolyan into attractive site for the small business. Thus we developed a project for modernization and development of industrial centre “North”. The headquarters of some of the biggest companies in the municipal are based there. However we need to modernize the road infrastructure and the other communications. We want to project other connections that will take the freight trucks straight from the factories to the republic road- from the exit of the town to Pamporovo. The contemporary industrial zone foresees a small civil airport, new opportunities for connections with the inner parts of the country.

-Will there be any opportunities for other companies to construct, production centres in the “North” zone? It is known that the terrains and parcels in town are more than scarce.
-This is one of the main goals - to create more opportunities for the small business. We will develop and modernize the “North” zone by regulating the land plots. We will create sites for industrial manufacture. The town has three main exits and the zone will be directly connected with them and the civil airport as well. We will create a modern economic centre, but we have to use all of the resources we have.

- How is the sport- tourism centre – “Perelik” developing? When is the actual start of the construction works expected?
- By the end of the year the contract with the investor and companies that won the competition with their projects for the centre will be signed. It will be unique and will give opportunities for all year round tourism with modern sport equipment and over 80 km ski slopes, golf courses and etc. The great advantage of this centre is the huge construction works will be avoided. It will protect the wild beauty of the nature and mountain and the tourist will receive first class conditions for sport and recreation.
The hotel base will be in Smolyan and the nearby situated centres Raykovski livadi and Smolyan lakes. Minimum 12 thousand beds are needed to welcome the tourists.     

 The inclusion of Bulgarian territories in the European environmental network Natura 2000 would have positive effects on Bulgarian tourism, leader of Bulgaria's Party of the Greens Valentin Simov said.

Natura 2000 aimed to preserve nature, one of the country's treasures, and to enable tourists access the protected areas, he said. Simov said as quoted by Focus news agency Natura 2000 would contribute to the development of ecological tourism in Bulgaria.

Authorities had to convince Bulgarians that the owners of property in the protected areas would be compensated, said Simov. Simov used as an example the region selected for Varna port re-location, which was to be included in the protected areas list, but hardly had any rare bird nesting there because of the smoke.

Environment and Water Affairs Minister Djevdet Chakurov will be responsible for the Natura 2000 consequences because he over-trusted his employees, Simov said. The ministry failed to inform Bulgarians about the compensation and the initiative in general, said he.

According to plans 30 per cent of Bulgaria's territories are to be included in Natura 2000. Property owners from these regions protested against the limitations to be imposed with the introduction of the network, while environmentalists said that more areas should be listed in Natura 2000.

 Kiril Assenov is an ambitious local businessman, and manager of “Perelik” AD, the company that won the municipality competition for the construction of the new Perelik Sport & Tourism Resort, near the well-established and already popular resort of Pamporovo.

The young businessman owns approx. 5000 decares of land and has already spent more than 500 000 BGN on the project. What started as an enthusiastic idea for several ski facilities turned into a mega project that now involves serious investor companies that have experience in the development of modern large-scale ski resorts in USA and Canada.

The project will further involve the company “Gela Engineering”, which will build the ski runs and facilities from the villages of Gela and Shileva Chuka, the company “Detelina Tours” Ltd. and the municipality itself.

Its infrastructure stipulates the construction of an airport close to Smolyan and a modern road from Plovdiv, the second largest city in Bulgaria.

  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.

 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.”

     Foreign tourists have spent 1.661 billion euro in Bulgaria, according to data from the Tourism Agency. The takings are for the first nine months of the year and are by 10% more than for the same period last year. The sum does not include transport money, the agency said. By the end of October over 3.7 million foreigners spent their holidays in Bulgaria. Most holiday-makers came from Germany, despite tour operators' reports for decrease of the German market by 3%. According to Tourism Agency's forecasts this year the number of foreign tourists to Bulgaria will increase by at least 6% and earnings - by 2%. Last year Bulgarian hotels accommodated over 4.1 million tourists that spent in Bulgaria 1.8 billion euro.

Over 3.5 million Bulgarians spent their holidays abroad in the first ten months of 2005. They spent 623 million euro abroad. The favorite holiday destinations for Bulgarians are Turkey, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro, Germany and Macedonia. The forecasts of the World Tourism Organization point out that by the end of 2005 the number of tourists will grow by 5 to 6% globally and in the EU.