Bulgaria defines spa, wellness and business tourism

SofiaEcho, Elitsa Grancharova

The Cabinet approved regulations on May 10 to govern the definition of spa, wellness and business hotels and the number of stars that they may be awarded.
Before the ordinance was amended, there was no specific regulation governing the issue and any hotel could describe itself as a spa or wellness hotel.
The ordinance, drafted by the State Agency for Tourism (SAT) also sets out the conditions that will apply to such places of accommodation.
Spa hotels must have diverse water and cosmetic procedures, sport centres, environmentally-friendly physical and aesthetic body treatments, offered by qualified personnel.
Requirements for wellness hotels are similar. They must have spa or wellness centres offering procedures, therapies and programmes, specially-equipped treatment facilities, as well as entertainment activities.
The amendments are aimed at developing specialist forms of tourism, such as congress, balneology, spa and wellness tourism, SAT said.
The new ordinance sets out for the first time a definition of business hotel: a place of accommodatin also offering facilities for working meetings, conferences, congresses, presentations, receptions and seminars.
The ordinance also introduces the term residence hotels. These may only be five-star establishments with interiors that are luxurious and non-traditional. Aesthetic building regulations will not apply to such hotels. Such hotels may be set up in old buildings and cultural monuments.
There also will be club hotels, which will serve tourists according to specialist interests.
SAT said that apartment complexes, hostels and residential apartments will be accorded star categorisations, reported Bulgarian-language daily 24 Chassa on May 11.
Moreover, at Voneshta Voda (Stinky Water, 27km from Veliko Turnovo in the central Stara Planina mountain range) a joint Bulgarian-Romanian tourist project has been started. Voneshta Voda mayor Hristo Dolchinkov said that the project was worth about 200 000 euro, 90 per cent of which will be provided by PHARE and the remaining 10 by the Sofia-based Millennium Foundation. The money will be used to create a pathway of health, camping, childrens zone and other facilities. The unique Karadjheikite ethnographic museum will be restored, as well as the house of Philip Totyu, a Bulgarian rebel against the Ottoman empire.
Voneshta Voda and Romanian town Giurgiu will also finance a tourism development plan, which foresees printing of 300 information leaflets in three languages, and 1500 promotional folders.
About 30 000 Romanian tourists, crossing the border at Svishtov port at the Danube, are expected to visit the Veliko Turnovo region this summer. The port will restore the ship connection with the neighbouring town of Zimnic, Bulgarian-language daily Pari reported on May 14.