Bulgaria to Amend Laws to Facilitate Construction of Ski Lifts

Bulgaria's Tourism Ministry is preparing legal amendments that will facilitate the construction of ski lifts and facilities, according to Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova.

Angelkova met Monday with representatives of ski resorts, concessionaires of ski lifts and local authorities.

The meeting was also attended by ski racing legend Marc Girardelli, an advisor to Bulgaria's Tourism Minister, according to reports of the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency.

Angelkova made clear that the regime would change thanks to amendments to the Tourism Act, the Spatial Planning Act, the Property Act, the Agricultural Land Ownership and Use Act, and the Forest Act.

She said that the legal amendments were expected to be ready in a month's time.

Angelkova underscored that Bulgaria was near the bottom of ski infrastructure rankings.

Bulgaria's Tourism Minister also told journalists that the 2014/2015 winter season had been successful, bringing growth of 8.2%, according to data of the National Statistical Institute (NSI).

She noted that Bulgarian mountain resorts had registered a total of 1.2 million tourists and revenues of BGN 640 M for the period December 2014 - March 2015, up by over 6% from the winter of 2013/2014.

Angelkova said that Turkish tourists had increased by 30%, arrivals from Italy by around 20%, German tourists by 10%, Austrian by 8%, and Greek tourists by 6%.

She added that the large increase in the number of Turkish tourists paved the way for talks with the Foreign Ministry for applying a simplified visa regime year-round, instead of just in the winter.

Angelkova announced that the 2016 national program for advertisement would be adopted at a meeting of the National Tourism Board in end-June.

She said that...