Süddeutsche Zeitung: Bulgaria's Bansko - Monopoly in the Snow

Munich-based daily Süddeutsche Zeitung has devoted an article to the controversy surrounding the plans for the construction of a second gondola lift in the Bulgarian ski resort of Bansko.

In a publication dated February 23, 2015 by Florian Sanktjohanser, the German daily presents the positions of both proponents and opponents of the expansion of the ski facilities in Bansko.

Ivan Obreykov, Marketing Director of the Bansko Ski Zone, is quoted as saying that environmentalists "are opposed to everything" and that they see a people-free mountain as the best case scenario.

In his words, the ski runs are crammed with up to 10 000 local and foreign skiers and snowboarders on weekends, with the ski zone fit to accommodate 6000-7000 visitors and the gondola lift having a capacity of up to 2400 skiers per hour.

He says that tourists sometimes have to stand in a queue for 3-4 hours in sub-zero temperatures.

Obreykov informs that the problem of congestion at the base station has not been eliminated despite the launch of buses to carry tourists up the mountain in 2014.

"This is why we need a second gondola lift and more ski runs," Obreykov declares.

According to Katerina Rakovska from the den World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), however, the striving for more hotels, more lifts, and more skiers creates a vicious circle.

WWF Bulgaria is part of a coalition of NGOs and civic groups called "For the Nature" that has been fighting against the expansion of the ski zone for years, SDZ informs.

The conflict between environmentalists and the Yulen company, concession-holder of ski facilities in Bansko, is traced back to 2000 and the plans of the firm to make Bansko the biggest ski zone in the country.

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