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.
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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...
UK tourists can book a bargain holiday in several countries in Europe including Bulgaria this summer thanks to the strong British pound, according to dailymail.co.uk.
According to recent statistics compiled by the UK’s Post Office, the British pound has gained 11.7% against the Bulgarian lev and 16.1% against the Turkish lira since 2014, boosting the spending power of British tourists visiting those countries. Against the euro, the pound is now 19% more expensive than it was in 2013.
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Weather in Bulgaria is perfect for tourism in the mountains on Wednesday, April 15, the Mountain Rescue Service with the Bulgarian Red Cross announced for FOCUS News Agency.
Temperatures vary between 1 C and 5°C.
The sports facilities are operating everywhere.
No incidents with tourists have been reported in the past twenty-four hours.
More information about the situation and the weather in the mountains is available on the official website of the Mountain Rescue Service ( www.pss.bg/ )...
Petar Paunov, Mayor of district centre Kyustendil commented, speaking for FOCUS News Agency on the restoration of the Roman fortress in the town and other topical matters.
”BGN 4.5 million was invested in the restoration of the Roman fortress in Kyustendil,” Mr Paunov said.
”In case there was a ready technical project, we managed it in only 6 and a half months owing to builders and their so far perfect work. Final work on infrastructure is to be done, namely fence elements and parking...
Bulgaria’s Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova boasted about a successful 2014/2015 winter season (December-February), stressing that the period had brought growth of over 9%, with the number of tourists increasing by nearly 80 000.
In an interview for Trud daily, Angelkova made clear that tourism revenues had increased by BGN 34 M during the past winter season.
She said that the number of Turkish visitors had gone up by nearly 30% as a result of the simplification of the visa...
”Over BGN 22 million was generated last year in the district of Smolyan due to nights spend in accommodation establishments, while over 22,000 people work in the sector in the entire Southern Central region,” said Bulgarian Minister of Tourism Nikolina Angelkova, speaking in district centre Smolyan at an off-site sitting of the Regions and National Infrastructure Development Council with the President’s Office themed “State policy on encouraging the economic activity in the poorly...
Deputy Mayor of Sofia, Todor Chobanov predicted growth of between 7% and 10% in Bulgaria's tourist sector this year, in a statement earlier this week.
The improved outlook comes on the back of Bulgaria's strengthening economy which recorded its first Q1 budget surplus since 2009, with Ђ128m in its public purse ripe for re-investment.
Bulgaria's winter sun resorts had a spectacular 2014, recording an increase in visitor numbers of 9.2% to the nation's ski slopes during the season,...
In the first six months of 2012, Sofia Airport processed a total of 1 694 728 passengers, up by 0.7% from the same period of 2011.
According to a media statement of Sofia Airport, the number of passengers travelling to international destinations increased by 34 276 (2%) on the year.
Bulgarian national carrier Bulgaria Air registered an increase of 8% in passengers travelling to domestic destinations.
As regards international air carriers running regular flights, the biggest increases...
4 and 5-star hotels had the highest occupancy rate in May, at 25.6%, according to data of Bulgaria's National Statistical Institute (NSI).
3-star hotels had an average 17.1% occupancy rate, while hotels, motels, camping sites, mountain chalets and other establishments for short-term accommodation with 1 or 2 stars reported an occupancy rate of 14.3% in May.
The average occupancy rate in Bulgarian short-term accommodation sites in May was 19.8%.
In May, a total of 1932 sites offering...
Bulgaria's capital Sofia slipped down one spot in the global ranking of cities with hotels with top customer satisfaction.
The rating is published by hotel.info every quarter.
Sofia is 11 with a score of 7.49 out of 10 received by customers themselves.
The respondents evaluate their stay on the basis of fulfilled expectations. They rank from 1 to 10 the hotel room, the noise level, the balance between price and quality, the staff, and the quality of food. These criteria allow some...
The citizens of Russia, Ukraine and Moldova who visited Bulgaria in 2011 can now enjoy eased visa rules for the Balkan country.
As of July 1, Bulgaria's consular offices in the aforementioned countries will issue annual multiple entry visas to all citizens who made a holiday or business trip to Bulgaria in 2011.
The candidates have to bring a photocopy of their 2011 visa.
As of January 2012, Russian holders of Schengen visas have been able to visit and stay in Bulgaria without...
This year's first group of four Romanian police officers are to start patrolling the Bulgarian Black Sea resort of Albena together with their Bulgarian colleagues on Sunday.
The joint Bulgarian-Romanian patrols of Bulgaria's Black Sea resorts for the 2012 summer season start as of July 1, as they did last year.
The Romanian police officers will be wearing their native uniforms and will cooperate with Bulgarian authorities in contacting Romanian tourists.
In the summer of 2010, Bulgaria...
A joint Bulgarian-Romanian wine festival will be opened in Bulgaria's Ruse as part of an EU-funded project entitled "Danube Wine Destinations".
The Bulgarian-Romanian Wine Festival will take place in Ruse on June 28-30, 2012, and will be opened by Bulgarian Agriculture Minister Miroslav Naydenov to finalize the Danube Wine Destinations project, which is funded under EU's PHARE Trans-border Cooperation Program 2007-2013.
Two NGOs, Evrointegra Association Bulgaira and Parteneri 2000 Romania...
Bulgaria will see a 10% growth in the number of tourists visiting it this summer, according to Delyan Dobrev, Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism.
Dobrev is convinced that the growth will exceed the 5-7% initially expected.
Commenting on the amendments to the Bulgarian tourism legislation that would affect the classification system for hotels and restaurants, the Minister told bTV that hotel and restaurant owners can now apply online for changing their star ratings.
It was recently...
MPs from the Parliamentary Agriculture Committee backed Thursday the veto imposed by Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev on a set of controversial amendments to the Forestry Act.
The Committee will propose a support of the veto to Parliament, meaning that the procedure for drafting the legal changes goes back to square one.
Members of the Agriculture Committee agreed that the veto provided an opportunity to vote the amendments amid a public debate including representatives of...
Bulgaria's Cabinet will allocate BGN 5 M (EUR 2.5 M) for international advertising of Bulgarian tourism in the rest of 2012, according to the government's Wednesday meeting's agenda.
According to the government press service, the funding will be used to Bulgaria's participation in over 35 international tourism expos, working meetings, seminars, and journalistic trips.
Up until 2009, Bulgaria's tourism sector was managed by the State Tourism Agency, whose annual budget was about BGN 5 M....
Bulgaria is about to make changes to its hotel and restaurant classification system, limiting the validity of hotel and restaurant star rating to five years.
Currently, the country's hotel and restaurant ratings are termless.
The classification procedure will be made easy for hotel and restaurant owner, Deputy Economy Minister in charge of tourism Ivo Marinov has promised.
Marinov has told the Focus news agency that obligatory standards will be introduced for Bulgaria's Spa...
Bulgaria is set to learn from Italy's good practices in order to develop its own equine tourism, according to Bulgarian Deputy Economy Minister in charge of tourism, Ivo Marinov.
Marinov met Friday in Sofia with Luigi Triossi, Secretary General of the International Federation of Equestrian Tourism (FITE); Alberto Spineli, Preisdent of the Italian Federation of Equestrian Tourism (FITETREC-Ante); and Fausto Faggioli, VP of the Regional Federation of Equestrian Tourism of the Italian region...
The number of Belarusian tourists in Bulgaria has doubled in May-June 2012 year-on-year, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry announced.
According to the Ministry, in May and early June 2012, the Bulgarian consular service in Belarus's capital Minsk issued a total of 18 500 visas compared with only 8 000 visas in the same period of 2011.
The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry has sent 6 more employees to Minsk in order to boost its consular staff in the Belarusian capital for the period between May 13...
Bulgaria expects a 5% to 8% increase of foreign tourists during summer season 2012, according to the Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism, Delyan Dobrev.
Dobrev attended Sunday the official opening of the season at Bulgaria's largest beach resort "Sunny Beach."
The Minister noted that the Russian market in particular is developing very well and there is an expected 15% to 20% increase from there, reminding that on Monday the 100 000th Bulgarian visa was issued to a Russian...
Sofia Municipality is going to open at least five more Tourist Information Centers, in addition to the only existing one, according to Deputy Sofia Mayor Irina Savina.
The Tourist Information Center in Sofia was opened in January 2010; it is located at the Sofia University metro station.
Savina announced Saturday, however, as cited by BTA, that similar tourist and cultural information offices will be opened at Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 of Sofia International Airport, the Central Railway...
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