site.btaSki Season at Pamporovo Resort Starts

Ski Season at Pamporovo Resort Starts

Smolyan, South Bulgaria, December 10 (BTA) - The renowned Bulgarian winter resort of Pamporovo officially opened the ski season on Saturday. Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova attended the event. The resort will welcome its first tourists with five open ski slopes, excellent conditions for skiing, free ski lifts on the first day and a snow show.

Minister Angelkova projects at least a 5 per cent average increase in the number of toruists this season, referring to data about early reservations across Bulgaria's winter resorts. The number of foreign tourists in Bulgaria this year is expected to reach eight million, with the optimistic forecast being 8.2 million.

She also quoted data, according to which Pamporovo registered a ten per cent increase in tourists in the first nine months of 2016, when over 92,000 tourists visited the winter resort.

Commenting the projections about the overall winter tourist season at Bulgarian resorts, Angelkova outlined a 51 per cent increase in the number of charter and regular flights from Britain. Movement is registered on markets such as the Netherlands, Belgium, as well as Austria and Germany, who are winter tourism competitors. According to the Minister, the Russian market is exceptionally important, as the increase of Russian tourists in the summer was 40 per cent, while early bookings are expected to grow by 10-15 per cent in the winter season. For the first time Bulgaria was destinguished by National Geographic - Russia as the best destination for a family vacation, Angelkova said, adding that this is an exceptional recognition of the efforts made to win back and retain the trust of Russian tourists.

Pamporovo AD's Executive Director Marian Belyakov told BTA that the projected increase in tourism this season is 10-15 per cent.

He noted that this winter, the resort is connected with the Mechi Chal ski zone. The ski zones on the Snezhanka and Mechi Chal peaks are now connected with shuttle buses, thus creating the largest ski resort in the country and the Balkans. Pamporovo AD has invested 600,000 leva in the shuttles alone.

According to Belyakov, this is definitely the strongest ski season start from the past few years. The temperatures from end-November allowed for the slopes to be covered with artificial snow, creating excellent conditions for skiing.

Reservations by Romanian and Greek tourists have increased by close to 30 per cent. Growth is observed among Irish vacationers, as well as tourists from Moldova.

Last-minute bookings are growing fast, Belyakov says. The British market retains its levels from the past few years. Turkish tourist groups are expected throughout the whole season.

The resort is to host a number of prestigious sporting events at the beginning of 2017, including Free Style Open in March, European Snowboard Slopestyle Cup in January as well as Ski Freestyle Slopestyle European Cup in March.