site.btaSunken Ships, Submerged Plane Attract Foreign Tourists to Bulgarian Black Sea

Sunken Ships, Submerged Plane Attract Foreign Tourists to Bulgarian Black Sea

Varna, on the Black Sea, November 4 (BTA) - In the last years,
the interest in diving and underwater walks has been increasing.
 Foreign tourists come to Bulgaria to see the ships sunken in
this country's territorial waters. Ever more Bulgarians take
courses and obtain certificates for skin divers. BTA talked
about the state of this tourist branch and its prospects with
Orlin Tsanev, instructor at a dive centre in Varna.

At Tsanev's initiative, the Tu-154 former government aircraft of
 Bulgarian communist leader Todor Zhivkov was submerged in the
Black Sea on May 25, 2011, at around 700 m off the coast of the
Sts Constantine and Helena resort.

Bulgaria already has many centres training divers, where the
instructors are professionals and are very good at their job,
Tsanev told BTA. "We train people aged from 17-18 up to 60 and
over," he said.

The interest in diving, underwater walking and the acquisition
of diver certificates is becoming ever greater, the instructor
also said. Tourists most often prefer depths of between 10 and 30
 m. It is predominantly Bulgarians who are trained at the dive
centres in this country, mostly because the foreigners come here
 for a short period of time and even if they stay longer, there
are no guarantees that the sea will allow daily diving. This is
the reason why many of the centres conduct part of their courses
 in Greece, Tsanev explained.

Bulgaria is visited by many tourists who love diving to sunken
ships, he also said. In his words, the largest number are
Britons, Russians and Ukrainians, and Romanians are also
interested in this activity. According to Tsanev, foreigners
also show strong interest in Zhivkov's submerged aircraft.

In the Varna Bay, there are several sunken barges from World War
 II that also spark foreigners' interest, Tsanev said. There are
 also a tanker and three submarines that attract foreign guests.
 North of Varna, towards Balchik, there is a ship at a depth of
16-17 m for which there is no information concerning the year of
 its sinking and the reason for its presence in Bulgarian
waters, he added.
   
Anton Angelov, who works in Greece as a trainer at an amateur
divers' centre on Cassandra, Chalkidiki,  told BTA that Greece
has a strict law on diving activity and once you obtain
documents, and as long as you observe the rules and the maritime
 laws, everything is all right for you, your work and the
country as a controlling body.

Bulgarian-Greek cooperation in the sphere of tourism is one of
the topics of the 11th World Meeting of Bulgarian Media,
organized by BTA in Athens from November 4 to 8.