site.btaUnderwater Tourism Has Not Yet Become Established Form of Recreation in Bulgaria

ESD 12:03:30 02-09-2014
VE1203ES.105
105 ECONOMY - UNDERWATER TOURISM - INSTRUCTOR - INTERVIEW

Underwater Tourism
Has Not Yet Become Established Form
of Recreation in Bulgaria


Sveti Nikola, on the Black Sea, September 2 (BTA) - Underwater
tourism in Bulgaria is viewed as an extreme type of experience,
rather than an alternative form of recreation as in other parts
of Europe, diving instructor Nikolai Mitev said, interviewed by
BTA late last week.

Mitev grew up in Varna, Bulgaria's "seaside capital," and is
very familiar with the northern part of the Bulgarian Black Sea
coast. He believes that the area north of Cape Kaliakra offers
the best conditions for underwater tourism in the country.

Although diving could be described as an ordinary experience for
Mitev, he feels that each dive is unique and the sea keeps
surprising him.

"We carry out every descent into the sea in natural underwater
conditions. They are not always very good, but they are
invariably real," Mitev said. The spots he prefers are the
northeastern reefs off the Roussalka Resort and those around the
Stone Arch at Tyulenovo.

Having worked as a diving instructor in Malta, at one point
Mitev decided to set up an underwater sports centre in Bulgaria.
He and his wife Kalina now run such a facility in the village
of Sveti Nikola. It is licensed by the Professional Association
of Diving Instructors (PADI), an international organization
headquartered in California. For 11 years now, Mitev has applied
PADI standards to the courses he teaches. He admits that very
little is left from the romantic feel of the early months, and
if he was to decide whether to start up such a business now, he
would not dare do it.

"We have fallen behind even compared with the countries of the
same latitude as ours. The sport of scuba diving is far more
developed in Turkey and Greece. There are more divers even in
Romania. We cannot begin to dream of achieving even a tiny
fraction of the popularity this sport enjoys in the West," Mitev
said.

He feels that nothing has been done to popularize the sport in
Bulgaria. The government seems to have no interest in promoting
it. Nor have tourism organizations done anything to make
underwater tourism a worthy form of mass entertainment and
advertise the Black Sea as a scuba diving hub, he said.

"I have dived to explore some of the shipwrecks in the Bay of
Kaliakra. Those of them which are farther off the shore are in
excellent condition for scuba diving. But sadly, this is not the
case with the shipwrecks which are close to the shore and are
easily accessible. They have fallen prey to scrap hunters and
they are being cut into pieces as we speak," Mitev said. He
complained that the central and local governments are powerless
in the face of all this looting.

"In other parts of the world, governments take care of sunken
artifacts, because, with time, they turn into artificial reefs,"
Mitev said. VI/VE