Bulgaria is to spend about 300 million leva (about 150 million euro) in European Union funds over the next two years restoring 11 castles and a large number of ancient sites that are popular tourist attractions.
Among the sites where restoration and development work will be done are the museum village of Etura, former capital Pliska, the Madara Horseman cliff carving near the town of Shoumen, Arbanassi, the Assenovgrad fortress, Magura and Ledenika caves and the Belogradchik rocks.
...
An enormous new vacation complex is to be build on Bulgaria's Northern Black Sea coast, announced Atanas Stoilov, Mayor of the Municipality of Aksakovo near Varna.
Stoilov told reporters Tuesday, as cited by Darik Radio, that the new resort will be built between the village of General Kantardzhievo and the Albena resort complex on a plot of 300 decares.
In his words, the project first started several years ago when it was initiated by French investors. After one of the investor's...
Bulgaria's Finance Minister Simeon Djankov has urged anew an emphasis on cultural and historical tourism, and a program to boost the Bulgarian pilgrimage sites.
Djankov took part Wednesday in a conference of the National Tourism Board, during which he encouraged the tourism sector to attract wealthier foreign tourists by focusing on cultural and historical sites, golf, and mountain tourism. He also said Bulgaria should not put efforts into developing its historical attractions from the...
Sofia has topped the chart for cheapest European destinations, which includes 40 cities, according to the travel website priceoftravel.com.
Deutsche Welle has reported that the rating for 2011 was made on the basis of the prices for cheap/good hotel, transportation, meals, drinks/entertainment and attractions.
"Europe's cheapest tourist city [Sofia] is becoming more popular each year, partly due to the low prices for almost everything, but its remote location will still be a problem for...
Bulgaria will take part in the International Holiday Exhibition CMT in Stuttgart, Germany and will present itself as a diverse holiday destination, the Bulgarian Economy Ministry has announced.
This year's edition of the exhibition, which will be held Tuesday, will focus on traditional tourism and traveling by caravans and motorcycles.
Bulgaria will participate with a 36 square meter stand, which will present the Municipality of the Bulgarian Black Sea city of Varna and the resort Albena....
Bulgaria's Interior Ministry is sending to the country's winter resorts police patrols whose members speaks up to three foreign languages, Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov, informs.
Tsvetanov spoke Monday during a meeting with EU, Norway and Switzerland Ambassadors to Sofia, saying this was just one of the measures undertaken by his institution to provide safety for the visitors. In some resorts, such as Pamporovo, police will be even watching the ski tracks.
Policemen's fluency in foreign...
Bulgaria's 2010/11 winter tourist season will be stronger than the last one, according to Minister of Economy Traicho Traikov.
Traikov, who is also responsible for Bulgaria's tourism, stated for Darik Radio Saturday that he expects an at least 3% increase in revenue, with some operators even expecting a 10% increase.
The Bulgarian minister commented that the country expects guests from all over Europe, including neighboring countries like Greece, Macedonia and especially...
The major TV channels National Geographic, Eurosport and Euronews is sending TV crews to Bulgaria to shoot reportages on tourism in the country, the Bulgarian Economy Ministry has announced.
The visit of the international journalists is organized through a project for advertising the tourism industry in the country and is financed by the Operational Program “regional Development.”
The National Geographic crew has already arrived to Bulgaria and is working on reportages on the culture...
Borovets, one of the top Bulgarian ski resorts, has announced its prices for the 2010-11 winter season, which have not been raised from last year.
The season in Bulgaria's oldes winter resort will be opened Saturday December 18, when special 50% discounts will be valid.
All-season subscription have even been reduced by 40%, according to Borosport, that manages Borovets facilities. The subscription for adults is EUR 450 (BGN 900), while that for kids is EUR 325.
The one-day card for all...
Tour operators forecast that Bulgarians will continue to limit the amount of money they spend on vacations through the whole winter season.
According to the forecasts, the number of trips abroad, which has been decreasing since the beginning of 2010, would probably continue the tendency.
The tourism industry in Bulgaria expects that during the upcoming winter season, short vacations would be preferred the most.
Information from the Sofia Airport showed that in 2010 the big tour...
A Bulgarian-German center was officially opened Monday in the regional, southern city of Smolyan to be used for staff training, mainly for employees working in the tourism sector.
The construction cost is BGN 2.5M. Experts will teach courses such as "Administration and Management," "Hotel, Restaurant Management and Catering," "IT Applications," "Food Technologies," and "Gardening."
The facility includes a dormitory, hotel rooms, practice kitchen, seminar and lecture halls.
There will...
Bulgaria will introduce a flat 9% value-added tax (VAT) in the tourism sector as of the beginning of April next year under amendments that parliament adopted at second reading on Wednesday.
The legal changes were tabled to parliament by the center-right government, but drew the ire of the right-wing Blue Coalition and the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms, which proposed alternative texts only to see them turned down by the majority.
The introduction of a flat VAT for the...
Top French alpine skier Luc Alphand will be the one to open the new ski season in the largest Bulgarian mountain resort Bansko.
Alphand is the only person to have won the ski World Cup and the Dakar Rally.
He has several world ski championship medals from the mid 1990s. Alphand made his World Cup skiing debut in 1984. In 1997 he won the World Cup.
After that, he retired only to start a career in car racing. He won the 2006 Dakar Rally, in which he had finished runner-up a year earlier....
Bansko, Bulgaria's biggest ski resort, is the second-cheapest resort for British skiers in the world, according to new research by the Post Office.
Poiana Brasov in Romania came top in a study comparing costs at 12 of the cheapest resorts. At GBP 259.53 for six skiing essentials, including a week's ski pass, ski hire, evening meals and drinks, Poiana Brasov was six per cent cheaper than Bansko in Bulgaria and up to 20 per cent cheaper than Slovenia's Kanin resort.
The news comes just days...
Bulgaria will introduce a flat 9% value-added tax (VAT) in the tourism sector as of the beginning of April next year under amendments that parliament adopted at first reading on Thursday.
The move comes in response to the demand of the European Union that Bulgaria should harmonize tourism VAT, which currently stands at 7% for organized groups and 20% for individual tourism.
The government has said that the new tax had to be introduced at the beginning of 2011, but was delayed until April...
Bulgaria's Economy Ministry is planning to present the country as a destination at the Romanian Tourism Fair 2010.
The international tourist expo will take place in the Romanian capital Bucharest on October 21-24, 2010.
It is usually attended by over 30 000 businesspeople from the tourism sector.
Bulgaria will take part in the Romanian Tourism Fair with an information pavilion of 110 square meters.
A total of 16 Bulgarian tour operators, travel agencies, tourism organizations and...
Bulgarian Economy Ministry is launching a new national tourism campaign in December, which aims to convince Bulgarians to spend their vacation in their native country.
On Tuesday, the ministry announced that the campaign will be presented by TV channels, radios, print editions and popular websites. There will also be ads in the centers of the cities and on key roads.
Deputy Economy Minister, Ivo Marinov, has explained that the campaign will be financed under the EU program "Regional...
The town council of Bulgaria's Black Sea resort Nessebar has effectively saved its UNESCO-recognized Old Town from destruction over the construction of a dolphinarium.
The Nessebar Dolphinarium saga finally ended on Thursday, after the town councilors approved the settlement between the municipality and Festa Holding, a private company which planned to build a dolphinarium on the small Black Sea peninsula harboring the Old Town, an UNESCO World Heritage site.
In a special press statement,...
Romania's income from foreign tourism is four times smaller than Bulgaria's, Romanian newspaper Ziarul Financiar reports.
In 2009, Romania's revenues from tourism amounted to EUR 882 M, according to the Romanian Statistical Institute. In comparison, Bulgaria's income from foreign tourists was EUR 3.72 B, Hungary made EUR 5.63 B, the Czech Republic – EUR 6.5 B, Croatia – EUR 8.8 B.
The number of foreign tourists who visited Romania in 2009 is five times smaller than the number...
One of Bulgaria's top winter resorts – Borovets in the Rila Mountain – expects a 10% increase of the holidaymakers for the winter season.
According to Neli Sandalska, head of the Board of Borosport AD, the owner of Borovets, the resort is seeing a tangible increase in bookings, especially from Russia and the Balkan countries.
The bookings by British tourists are expected to go up 5%, as is the number of Bulgarians who will spend their winter vacations in Borovets.
The Borovets...
Bulgaria's government will introduce a flat 9% value-added tax (VAT) in the tourism sector, not 14% as initially planned, as of the beginning of April next year, a deputy economy minister has announced.
The move comes in response to the demand of the European Union that Bulgaria should harmonize tourism VAT, which currently stands at 7% for organized groups and 20% for individual tourism.
"The new tax had to be introduced at the beginning of 2011, but it is not a good thing to mess up the...
Bulgaria will advertise its culture and historical heritage with video clips and films, will start issuing licenses to tour guides while the cabinet will invest in the infrastructure of the tourist sites.
Bulgarian ministers, archeologists, businessmen and tour operators joined around these ideas Sunday, during a national debate on the culture tourism, organized by the Bulgarian daily "Standart," held in the Arena di Serdika hotel in downtown Sofia.
Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov,...
Bulgaria Translation