Largest Bulgarian resorts acquire new status

novinite.com, 18 May 2011

Bulgaria's national resorts will be declared "settlements with particular status" with unified urban planning and management.

The information was reported by the daily Standard, citing Deputy Minister in charge of Tourism, Ivo Marinov.

These settlements will include the beach resorts of "Sunny Beach", "Albena", "Golden Sands, "Dyuni" and the winter ones of "Borovets", "Bansko" and "Pamporovo" among others.

Currently, ownership of the infrastructure varies from resort to resort. The largest Bulgarian summer resort "Sunny Beach," for example, is a public association with 75% State stake and 25% belonging to minority shareholders. The "Albena" infrastructure has one owner; the "Golden Sands" one belongs to different hotel owners and other owners; in Borovest the ski facilities are owned by the "Borosport" company while the infrastructure belongs to the municipality, and the one at Pamporovo is shared between the municipalities of Chepelare and Smolyan, Marinov points out, adding all resorts now will have common organization.

The Deputy Minister further said the cabinet is mulling eliminating resort tax for hotels for periods when they are not in use.