More of the usual: How is the ski season going in Bulgaria?

The winter tourism season in Bulgaria is in full swing, even if the weather outside has been springlike. The ski slopes are open, bookings for the coming months are full and everything looks optimistic for Winter 2023/2024. Nevertheless, the overall feeling is that for yet another year it is the private sector alone that saves the season, at least, that’s what industry reps from two of Bulgaria’s biggest winter resorts - Pamporovo and Bansko – are claiming.

Missed opportunities

According to Malin Bistrin, chairman of the tourism business association in Bansko, Bulgaria has missed many opportunities in the tourism industry due to the prioritization of other economic sectors.

The entire tourism guild is united in the view that we are indeed seeing a focus of the government's gaze on various sectors, but not on tourism. Despite it being a leading and unifying industry. We see our neighbouring countries progressing quickly," says Bistrin in a conversation with Economic.bg.

According to him, the most important thing is to give priority to cheap airplane seats.

If access to a destination is easy and cheap, no one will care about the price of the local salad in the restaurants."

Mariyan Belyakov, executive director of Pamporovo AD, is of the same opinion. According to him, in general, in the last 20 years, not enough attention has been paid to the development of Bulgarian tourism. There is a lack of planning for collective advertising campaigns at the expense of diversification of individual business advertising. Yet, what the winter resorts need as promotion is completely different from the needs of the Black Sea summer resorts.

In this direction, in the fall of 2023, the Bulgarian Ministry of Tourism launched a new program for financing marketing activities of tourist services in the Black Sea municipalities. In mid-December, the contracts for the advertising campaigns were signed. What is new about this strategy is that the ideas for the campaigns come from the business sector itself this time. And according to Belyakov, this is the right approach.

Over the years, there has been a problem with the advertising approach and how to promote Bulgaria to Europe and the world. These things were never agreed with the business, and it is absolutely necessary for this to happen. In the last year and a half, we have seen good initiatives in tourism. It's not that there haven't been such in the past, but if we're talking about a lasting, sustainable approach to market differentiation and the presentation of different types of tourism in Bulgaria, we definitely didn't do it the right way," says Belyakov.

Among the main problems of the more remote Bulgarian ski resorts, such as Pamporovo and the entire Smolyan region, is poor infrastructure.

Advertising, advertising and more advertising

This is the topic in Bulgarian tourism that is discussed the most and causes the most controversy. Ranging from whether it was made qualitatively through its relevance to the budget for its implementation. It has been repeatedly said that the marketing budget available to the Bulgarian Ministry of Tourism (under EUR 15 million) is negligible, which dooms the country to remain less visible on the global market.

Taking all this into account we get why our tourism is suffering even though we have exceptional assets - amazing coastline, great ski resorts. Authorities need to show understanding to tourism developers," says Belyakov.

According to the executive director of Pamporovo AD, in the coming years what needs to change are the labour legislation, and the business support mechanism, plus an exact balance must be found regarding the VAT rate for the various sectors.

It is difficult for us to adapt and protect the interests of our sector," says Belyakov.

Winter tourism season

Despite everything, however, both Bansko and Pamporovo say that the winter ski season is currently going at a good pace. The main groups of foreign tourists who will come for a winter vacation in Bulgaria are traditionally those from other Balkan countries - Greece, Turkey, and Romania.

The business sector admits that it would be difficult to compensate for the absence of key markets for Bulgarian tourism, such as Israel, Ukraine and Russia, although efforts are being made to attract people from more distant destinations.

According to the two business representatives, the ski season is going well because of all the investments that the private sector itself makes in the improvement of the resorts. And for another year, it will be precisely the entrepreneurs that manage to save the tourist season.

Translated by Tzvetozar Vincent Iolov