Tourism

Tourism is one of the most happening and at the same time problematic sectors of the Bulgarian economy.

The greatest challenge the country faces is to find ways to make the most of its unique tourism resources. Bulgaria has some first-class mountain and sea resorts, but poor marketing means the country attracts less tourists than it should.

Both individual companies and trade organisations are investing in the development of the country’s tourism infrastructure but their efforts are not backed up by a well-financed and well thought out advertising campaign. Up to now the budget allocated to the State Tourism Agency has been highly inadequate and frequent changes of management there have meant little has been achieved. Now though there is some hope that with the establishing of a national tourism board, with the leading tourist companies in charge, and the Agency’s willingness to cooperate with it, there will be some real movement in the right direction. In the forthcoming tourist season new agencies will be opened in foreign countries that have an established interest in Bulgaria. Hopes are high that more advertising will improve the country’s image abroad and thereby lead to greater revenues for this sector.

Bulgaria attracts foreign tourists mainly with its sea and mountain resorts. The ski resorts of Pamporovo and Borovets and the famous Slunchev Bryag and Zlatni Pyasutsi beach resorts are just a few of the names attracting large numbers of foreign tourists.

The country still has unexplored and unexploited resources for cultural and historic tourism, religious, eco, spa and adventure tourism.Traces of seven civilisations have been discovered on these lands, including the first pre-historic civilisations in Europe, Thracian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Islam cultures. Poor management and marketing of these sites, however, has led to low, if any, interest abroad. Currently, cultural tourism provides only two per cent of the total tourism revenue.

One of the reasons for the low revenues from cultural tourism is poor accessibility to the sites. The country’s underdeveloped infrastructure plagues the whole industry. This is especially true as far as airports are concerned, with those in the seaside cities of Bourgas and Varna particularly lacking the capacity to serve the increased tourist flow of recent years. The recent rows around the concession deal for the two airports – which would have meant refurbishment and modernisation – have only served to prolong the agony.

Major changes in the sector in 2005 included the abolishing of the double pricing system which previously meant that foreigners were charged higher prices – sometimes double! – than Bulgarians were from services as wide-ranging as hotel rooms to ski passes to museum entry fees. Many institutions have found ways to continue this practice, offering discounts for ‘regular customers’ instead. Another change the tourism sector saw last year was the ban on construction work during the holiday season.

Trends show that the number of tourists visiting Bulgaria increases by four to 10 per cent annually. The larger part of tourists are Germany, reaching over half a million. Other nations interested in Bulgaria include Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, the UK and Russia.

In 2005, tourism revenue reached 15 per cent of the GDP. With revenue for 2005 reaching 1.8 billion euro, the tourism industry registered a 8.78 per cent growth. The number of holidaymakers also increased by 4.5 per cent.

Experts predict the 2006 tourism season will see considerable changes to the market. While Germany was for a long time the largest market for the Bulgarian tourist product, the focus has shifted to the Scandinavian countries, the UK and Russia. Predictions are that tourism revenue will total more than 5.6 billion euro in 2006 and reach 16 per cent of the GDP.

Real estate market trends show that more and more foreigners are interested in purchasing land at the Bulgarian seaside to build hotels and holiday villages, and this has lead to a record price hike. Although demand remains high, the Bulgarian shoreline is already overcrowded in the summer season and supply of front-line plots suitable for constructing new hotels is low. Tourists have already begun to complain about the crowded shores and investors have transferred their interest from the popular resorts like Slunchev Bryag (Sunny Beach) and Zlatni Pyasutsi (Golden Sands) to the smaller and less-developed areas away from the large cities.