Culture Projects to Receive 1 million BGN in 2011

Sofia's municipality will allocate 1 million leva to fund 120 culture projects in 2011, with half of the funds to be granted to non-government organisations, Sofia mayor Yordanka Fandukova announced today. The money will be used to help organise festivals, exhibitions, concerts, celebrations and theatres.

The National Academy of Art will receive 11386 leva of the total to host the International Digital Arts Festival, while the IME association will obtain more than 10000 leva to organise the Water Tower Art Fest.

A further 18000 leva will be provided to the city's choir of blind people to finance their performances, while Edno magazine will receive 24000 leva for the Mellow Music Festival. Local authorities will also grant funds to the Sofia City Art Gallery, theatres and associations.

The municipality will allocate another one million leva to finance projects to preserve historical heritage, which will be selected by the end of May.

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New Tourism Project - the Roman Emperors' Road

The development of the Roman Emperors' Road - a new international tourism project was the top focus of a meeting of Bulgaria's and Croatia's Economy Ministers in Zagreb on  27th April as part of a Bulgarian state delegation led by PM Boyko Borisov.

"Tourism harbours a great potential for Bulgarian-Croatian economic ties", said Bulgarian Minister of Economy, Energy, and Tourism, Traicho Traikov, and his Croatian counterpart Duro Popijac.

The Roman Emperors' Road is a major international cultural collaboration involving four countries - Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, and Serbia. It will promote cultural heritage from the Roman Empire period in combination with more modern practices such as spa tourism.

In Bulgaria, the itinerary includes Roman routes that are still in use today as major transport arteries such as the Danube River, the Sofia-Plovdiv-Svilengrad road and the Black Sea Panorama road.

Ministers Traikov and Popijac have hailed the 10% growth of Bulgarian-Croatian co-operative trade for 2010. Traikov remarked in Zagreb that Croatia's accession to the EU will ensure a further substantial boost in the exchange of trade and investments.

The two Economy Ministers further agreed that their respective energy companies will study the options for exporting Bulgarian electricity to Croatia. At Traikov's initiative the Bulgarian National Electric Company NEK and the Croatian NER will survey the technical and financial conditions for electricity trade. Croatia currently imports about 35% of its electricity.

Traikov and Popijac further underscored the importance of the development of the EU-sponsored Southern Gas Corridor for the imports of Caspian natural gas, creating liquefied natural gas terminals in Southeast Europe, and electricity grid connections.

Traikov and Popijac also opened a Bulgarian-Croatian business forum, while Bulgaria's Deputy Economy Minister in charge of tourism, Ivo Marinov, took part in a meeting of the joint Bulgarian-Croatian Tourism Commission.

In 2010, Bulgaria's trade with Croatia amounted to €117.6 million, 10% more than in 2009; Bulgaria was visited by 14186 Croatian tourists in 2010, also a 10% year-on-year growth; and Croatian companies invested a total of €38 million in Bulgaria in the period up to 2010

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Sofia ranked best-value cultural tourist destination in EU

Sofia tops the ranking for the best value European cultural destinations from a survey of forty major cities. The research finding comes from the company Price of Travel in their report, "Europe 3-star Traveller Index", published on 30th March 2011.

The rating takes into account the following cost factors based on two people sharing hotel rooms and taxis:

• One night in the cheapest 3-star hotel available with a good location
• Two 3-kilometer taxi rides per day (one ride paid per person)
• One cultural attraction, such as a popular museum, per day
• Three meals per day using the top end of the range for budget meals
• Three beers (or wine) each day

Non-drinkers might have dessert and coffee or attend a local music performance instead, so this is a general benchmark that should be proportional for each city.

According to the compiled figures from Price of Travel, a day in Sofia costs $46.91. Second comes the city of Budapest, where the daily cost for tourists is about $9 more than Sofia. In third place is Krakow at $58.96, followed by Bucharest - $60.98 and Warsaw - $80.12

With a daily cost of $136.63, London is listed in 32nd place, making it  more costly  than: Moscow, Brussels, Helsinki and Nice. The most expensive tourist destinations, though, are Oslo, with a  cost of $170.78, Stockholm at $179.40 and Zurich where tourists will pay a hefty $188.44 for their day.

This is the second set of research findings this year from Price of Travel. In January, they published their results from a similar study based on costs for backpackers, rather than 3-star travellers. In this research Sofia was, once again, rated as Europe's best value destination.

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Bulgaria 2nd best value destination for tourists

Bulgaria is the second best value destination for British tourists for 2011, according to a survey of Post Office Travel Money.

With prices pegged at 2010 levels and 36 per cent lower than in 2007 when Post Office Travel Money first created the Holiday Costs Barometer, Spain was rated as the best value destination, with Portugal pushed into third place by Bulgaria.

The basis of the survey is the cost of a basket of 10 items, including a meal out for two, drinks and suncream. This now costs £42.15p in Spain. £43.79p in Bulgaria and £49.73p in Portugal. The costs in other countries in the survey ranged from £58.87 in Greece to a massive £92.81p in USA.

"As we can see from the Post Office figures, the leading countries are offering extremely good value and it's not just restaurateurs dropping prices, but hoteliers as well .." said Sean Tipton, spokesperson for ABTA The Travel Association "The pound has rallied against the euro, but the exchange rate problem has been completely wiped out by the low prices being offered .." he continued " .. and the leading destinations should congratulated for recognising the problems and doing all they can to change things and encourage holidaymakers back."

The full survey findings list the top 14 value destinatons ..

Spain: Costa del Sol - £42.15
Bulgaria: Sunny Beach - £44.79
Portugal: Algarve - £49.63
Greece: Corfu - £58.87
Dubai: Jumeirah - £59.37
Malta: Various - £68.97
Turkey: Marmaris - £69.51
Cyprus: Various - £70.74
Croatia: Kvarner - £73.55
UK: Brighton - £77.01
Egypt: El Gouna - £78.30
France: Brittany - £81.48
Italy: Sorrento - £88.21
USA: Miami - £92.81

While the survey showed that this year's holiday costs around the world were generally lower or static, perhaps the most revealing finding of all was that the cost of the basket of goods in the Sussex resort of Brighton has increased by around 10 percent compared with last year.

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Tourist numbers up for start of 2011

The number of foreign tourists visiting Bulgaria in the first two months of 2011 grew by 6% year-on-year, a senior official announced at the opening of the Cultural Tourism Expo in Veliko Tarnovo.

According to Ivo Marinov, Deputy Minister of Economy and Tourism, in January and February, Bulgaria saw more tourists from Greece, Romania, Serbia, Turkey, Macedonia, the UK and Russia. The visas issued to Russian tourists in January were more than 50% up the same month of last year. Bulgaria's revenues from foreign tourists in the first two months of 2011 amounted to EUR 109 million, a 5% year-on-year increase.

Together with Deputy Culture Minister Todor Chobanov, Marinov opened the 8th annual Cultural Tourism Fair in Bulgaria's medieval capital Veliko Tarnovo, featuring more than 80 exhibitors including a number of Bulgarian towns and cities and foreign destinations.

The organizers revealed data showing that in the first quarter of 2011, a total of 32683 tourists, both Bulgarian and foreign, have visited the cultural landmarks of the country compared with 28245 in the first quarter of 2010.

The participants in the Veliko Tarnovo cultural tourism expo expressed their optimism about the prospects of Bulgaria's tourism in 2011. According to Blagoy Radin, head of the Bulgarian Association of Hotel and Restaurant Owners, 10%-15% more foreign tourists will visit the country over the summer than during the 2010 summer season.

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400000 visited Balchik Palace in 2010 .. more in 2011

The Palace complex in the Bulgarian Black Sea town of Balchik hosted more than 400000 visitors in 2010, according to a management press release issued on 6th April.

Balchik Palace – or Dvoretsa – was built in 1924 by Queen Maria of Romania at a time when the region of Southern Dobrudzha was part of Romania (1918-1940). It was subsequently integrated with the Balchik Botanical Gardens to create one of the most famous tourist sites on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast.

The Balchik Botanical Garden was established in 1940. It has an area of 65,000 square metres and accommodates more than 2000 plant species belonging to 85 families and 200 species. In May 2010, a government decision was made to transfer the Garden's management from Bulgaria's Sofia University, St Kliment Ohridski, to the Ministry of Culture, which caused a long-running battle between the two institutions. Earlier on Wednesday, however, the University won back its right to manage the Gardens.

A record number of tourists visited the Balchik Palace complex in August 2010, announced the Director, Toshko Gyaurov, on Wednesday. "This amounted to 40% of the year's total visitors ..." he continued "... and this helped us to generate revenues of BGN 2.5million in 2010."

Director Gyaurov said that BGN 4million has been invested in the complex over the past 5 years and that a further BGN 280,000 has been allocated for maintenance and infrastructure development of Dvoretsa and the adjacent beach before the 2011 summer tourist season starts. On this basis, it is expected that every month in the summer of 2011 will be just as successful for the Balchik complex as was August 2010.

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Sofia to Invest in Downtown Archaeology Complex

Bulgaria’s capital Sofia needs about BGN 20 million in order to excavate and restore the archaeological complex of ancient and medieval Serdika.

In March, during the construction of the second line of the Sofia Metro, archaeological teams have uncovered previously unknown objects, sites and artefacts which led the Sofia Municipality and the Culture Ministry to the decision to temporarily freeze the construction of the metro line and turn the heart of downtown Sofia into a top tourist attraction by revealing the streets of the the Roman town of Serdika and the medieval town of Sredets.

Sofia Mayor, Yordanka Fandakova, accompanied the ambassadors of the EU member states on a tour around the newly uncovered sites while stressing that she would rely on their support to help the municipality seek funding from various international sources.

Currently, the excavations are being funded by the Metropolitan, the municipal firm running the subway, the Culture Ministry, and the Sofia Municipality.

Fandakova pointed out that more money will be needed for the excavation and restoration of the ancient and medieval sites uncovered on the spot of the future Metro Station 8-II, which is located right in the centre of the ancient Thracian and Roman town of Serdika where Emperor Constantine the Great had a summer palace, and of the medieval Bulgarian town of Sredets.

"We are determined to find enough money for the Serdika-Sredets archaeological complex", she continued "Our aim is to preserve everything that history left behind without blocking the development of the city, and to help the archaeologists preserve the cultural heritage of Sofia so that it can be experienced first-hand by the people. This is a unique chance for Sofia as a cultural tourism destination which will boost the development of the city".

The most recent archaeological excavations in downtown Sofia have uncovered well-preserved traces of the life in the city from almost all historical periods in the last few thousand years.

The finds include a stone claw-hammer from prehistoric times, the main street of the Roman town of Serdika from the Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages (4th-6th century), including the sewage and water supply system; pottery, coins, and jewels from the 8th to 12th century, a church dated back to the 13th century; another church and a necropolis dated back to the 14th century, together with a total of 150 graves, mostly from the Middle Ages.

The area around Metro Station 8-II falls within the wider confines of the town of Serdika-Sredets and it is in this vicinity yhat archaeologists have also found a town square from ancient times, as well as a luxury house and several baths dated to between 180 and 250 AD.

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