Bulgaria Ski discussion board
Interesting read on Bansko
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posts : 13 (Beginner)Date : 02-29-04 17:39Interesting read on Bansko
Found this article that appeared in the Banker Weekly published 12/2003.
Interesting to see that Bansko does infact have the basis there, but still lack the dedicated 'tourist-focused' employees. Guess people who visit will have to remember that Bansko is infact still very much in it's infancy as a ski 'resort' and is very much marketed as a working unit, a traditional place to ski.
It is fair that although Britons will not accept rudness and clearly should not happen, Bansko is aware ...
Interesting to see that Bansko does infact have the basis there, but still lack the dedicated 'tourist-focused' employees. Guess people who visit will have to remember that Bansko is infact still very much in it's infancy as a ski 'resort' and is very much marketed as a working unit, a traditional place to ski.
It is fair that although Britons will not accept rudness and clearly should not happen, Bansko is aware ...
Found this article that appeared in the Banker Weekly published 12/2003.
Interesting to see that Bansko does infact have the basis there, but still lack the dedicated 'tourist-focused' employees. Guess people who visit will have to remember that Bansko is infact still very much in it's infancy as a ski 'resort' and is very much marketed as a working unit, a traditional place to ski.
It is fair that although Britons will not accept rudness and clearly should not happen, Bansko is aware of this, it appears to be in Banskian's 'genes' they sound like they are trying to develop and from comments read from others it seems like they still have plenty of work to do, but are trying.
I still look forward to the holiday, and Bansko was chosen on two accounts. One the modern ski facilties entwined with the natural beauty and secondly because it is a working town, a traditional entity - I hope to sample as much has possible to have the overall Bansko-experience
The artice as follows:
QUALIFIED PERSONNEL IS WHAT THE MODERN SKI CENTRE STILL LACKS Until two years ago, the name of Bansko was mainly associated with the history of the town, the names of famous Bulgarians such as Neofit Rilski, Paisiy Hilendarski, and Nikola Vaptsarov, the stubborn temper of its citizens, the strange accent, the nice songs, and the famous specialties.
Since 2001 when the building of the ski centre was finally initiated, Bansko began to differentiate from the cliche "ethnographical and cultural centre". Currently, it is considered the most modern ski resort in the Balkans. A great merit is due to the Yulen joint-stock company established in September 1999. On September 2, 2001, Yulen won the competition for a 30-year concession on the future ski resort equipment.
The company's capital is distributed among Pirin Tourist OOD (34%), Geotechmin Engineering OOD (34%), Academica Executive Agency (18%), the municipality of Bansko (12%), and DZI General Insurance AD (2%). All of the shareholders are also hotel owners (they own Pirin, Glazne, Bansko, and Strazhite hotels), so their investments in the ski centre also provide permanent customers for these hotels' beds.
Meantime, Yulen AD which initially promised to invest EUR25MN until the ski zone is completed attracted some other investors. According to the Bansko Mayor Alexander Kravarov, some EUR50MN has been invested in the town over the past two years. Until the opening of the winter season last Saturday the concessioner Yulen alone had invested EUR30MN in ski lifts, tracks, and other infrastructural facilities in the ski centre. 280 new jobs were opened, Yulen's Executive Director Boyan Mariyanov said. The company will have its investments returned in seven to ten years, he predicts. The remaining EUR20MN was invested by other entrepreneurs, mainly from Sofia, who acquired ground for construction of villas, hotels, and houses.
Tour operators already forecast that Bankso will be the hottest winter resort this season. More than 300,000 skiers are expected, mainly from Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Greece and Macedonia. All hotels have already been booked, says Iliya Choutourkov, Marketing and Advertising Manager of Balkan Holidays OOD, which runs the 4-star hotels Pirin, Bansko and Strazhite. The tourist product is also sold by the company Alxandra (in the Czech Republic and Slovakia) and Solvex (in Russia).
The fourteen ski-tracks are equipped with a total of 59 fixed and portable facilities for artificial snow, which will guarantee good conditions for skiers till the end of April, Iliya Rizov from Yulen points out. A new 8-seat gondola lift of the Austrian Doppelmeiser will take the skiers from Bansko to Banderishka Polyana. The facility is 6,300 m long and has a capacity of 2,400 people per hour.
From Banderishka Polyana to Shiligarnika the vacationers will use a 6-seat lift, and a 4-seat lift is available from Shiligarnika to the Todorka peak. A state-of-the-art system of electronic chip card of the Austrian company Ski Data has been introduced in Bulgaria for the first time. The card will cost BGN24 per day and will allow access to all facilities in the resort.
The Yulen Ski school opened doors last Saturday. It has 13 new machines for stamping the tracks and 1,200 pairs of entirely new skies, shoes and sticks, and 300 snow-boards. Experts are unanimous that by its dynamic development Bansko can only be compared to Sevlievo.
However, the town faces a serious problem. It lacks qualified personnel for the tourist industry. "It's difficult for me to find staff with the necessary experience and qualification", Nikola Vaptsarov, owner of Chateau Vaptsarov admitted to the BANKER weekly. "But I found a way out. I work with hoteliers from Varna. In winter they send me their personnel, and in summer the employees of Chateau Vaptsarov work for them."
YT
@barmy-army.org.uk
** Apologies for the length of this posting, but felt considering the current 'theme' on Bansko it was applicable to this board **
Interesting to see that Bansko does infact have the basis there, but still lack the dedicated 'tourist-focused' employees. Guess people who visit will have to remember that Bansko is infact still very much in it's infancy as a ski 'resort' and is very much marketed as a working unit, a traditional place to ski.
It is fair that although Britons will not accept rudness and clearly should not happen, Bansko is aware of this, it appears to be in Banskian's 'genes' they sound like they are trying to develop and from comments read from others it seems like they still have plenty of work to do, but are trying.
I still look forward to the holiday, and Bansko was chosen on two accounts. One the modern ski facilties entwined with the natural beauty and secondly because it is a working town, a traditional entity - I hope to sample as much has possible to have the overall Bansko-experience
The artice as follows:
QUALIFIED PERSONNEL IS WHAT THE MODERN SKI CENTRE STILL LACKS Until two years ago, the name of Bansko was mainly associated with the history of the town, the names of famous Bulgarians such as Neofit Rilski, Paisiy Hilendarski, and Nikola Vaptsarov, the stubborn temper of its citizens, the strange accent, the nice songs, and the famous specialties.
Since 2001 when the building of the ski centre was finally initiated, Bansko began to differentiate from the cliche "ethnographical and cultural centre". Currently, it is considered the most modern ski resort in the Balkans. A great merit is due to the Yulen joint-stock company established in September 1999. On September 2, 2001, Yulen won the competition for a 30-year concession on the future ski resort equipment.
The company's capital is distributed among Pirin Tourist OOD (34%), Geotechmin Engineering OOD (34%), Academica Executive Agency (18%), the municipality of Bansko (12%), and DZI General Insurance AD (2%). All of the shareholders are also hotel owners (they own Pirin, Glazne, Bansko, and Strazhite hotels), so their investments in the ski centre also provide permanent customers for these hotels' beds.
Meantime, Yulen AD which initially promised to invest EUR25MN until the ski zone is completed attracted some other investors. According to the Bansko Mayor Alexander Kravarov, some EUR50MN has been invested in the town over the past two years. Until the opening of the winter season last Saturday the concessioner Yulen alone had invested EUR30MN in ski lifts, tracks, and other infrastructural facilities in the ski centre. 280 new jobs were opened, Yulen's Executive Director Boyan Mariyanov said. The company will have its investments returned in seven to ten years, he predicts. The remaining EUR20MN was invested by other entrepreneurs, mainly from Sofia, who acquired ground for construction of villas, hotels, and houses.
Tour operators already forecast that Bankso will be the hottest winter resort this season. More than 300,000 skiers are expected, mainly from Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Greece and Macedonia. All hotels have already been booked, says Iliya Choutourkov, Marketing and Advertising Manager of Balkan Holidays OOD, which runs the 4-star hotels Pirin, Bansko and Strazhite. The tourist product is also sold by the company Alxandra (in the Czech Republic and Slovakia) and Solvex (in Russia).
The fourteen ski-tracks are equipped with a total of 59 fixed and portable facilities for artificial snow, which will guarantee good conditions for skiers till the end of April, Iliya Rizov from Yulen points out. A new 8-seat gondola lift of the Austrian Doppelmeiser will take the skiers from Bansko to Banderishka Polyana. The facility is 6,300 m long and has a capacity of 2,400 people per hour.
From Banderishka Polyana to Shiligarnika the vacationers will use a 6-seat lift, and a 4-seat lift is available from Shiligarnika to the Todorka peak. A state-of-the-art system of electronic chip card of the Austrian company Ski Data has been introduced in Bulgaria for the first time. The card will cost BGN24 per day and will allow access to all facilities in the resort.
The Yulen Ski school opened doors last Saturday. It has 13 new machines for stamping the tracks and 1,200 pairs of entirely new skies, shoes and sticks, and 300 snow-boards. Experts are unanimous that by its dynamic development Bansko can only be compared to Sevlievo.
However, the town faces a serious problem. It lacks qualified personnel for the tourist industry. "It's difficult for me to find staff with the necessary experience and qualification", Nikola Vaptsarov, owner of Chateau Vaptsarov admitted to the BANKER weekly. "But I found a way out. I work with hoteliers from Varna. In winter they send me their personnel, and in summer the employees of Chateau Vaptsarov work for them."
YT
@barmy-army.org.uk
** Apologies for the length of this posting, but felt considering the current 'theme' on Bansko it was applicable to this board **
Development in Bansko to continue into 2005
Bulgarian ski resort Bansko is the 2003 winner in the tacit competition between owners of infrastructure companies in the three major Bulgarian mountain resorts, which started since the resorts went private in the 90s.
Bulgarian tourist company Yulen, which operates the ski facilities in Bansko under a 30-year concession, was named top investor in Bulgaria's tourist sector for 2003 over the company's $37 mln investments in Bansko ski centre upgrade, which is to be completed by 2005, ...
Bulgarian tourist company Yulen, which operates the ski facilities in Bansko under a 30-year concession, was named top investor in Bulgaria's tourist sector for 2003 over the company's $37 mln investments in Bansko ski centre upgrade, which is to be completed by 2005, ...
Bulgarian ski resort Bansko is the 2003 winner in the tacit competition between owners of infrastructure companies in the three major Bulgarian mountain resorts, which started since the resorts went private in the 90s.
Bulgarian tourist company Yulen, which operates the ski facilities in Bansko under a 30-year concession, was named top investor in Bulgaria's tourist sector for 2003 over the company's $37 mln investments in Bansko ski centre upgrade, which is to be completed by 2005, aiming at turning Bansko into a modern international resort.
Yulen set up a new 6.2 km cable car line to link the ski resort and the ski slopes in Banderishka Polyana locality in Pirin mountain and a new four-seat chair lift equipped with shields protecting from wind and snow. Yulen bought 26 snowguns for production of artificial snow from the Italian snow-making systems producer TechnoAlpin, which will extend the season in the resort until May 2004.
Borovets was the first ski resort which embarked on developing local infrastructure. Private industrial group MG corporation, which acquired local infrastructure company Borosport in 2002, upgraded three of the ski runs for night skiing and installed six snowguns for artificial snow in 2002. Investments for the 2003 winter season focused on ski infrastructure maintenance and in purchases of new snow equipment. The resort offers a special half-pipe snowboard run. The winter tourist season will officially start on December 21, 2003.
Pamporovo ski resort management company, Pamporovo AD, focused its 2003 investments to snow attractions. Visitors to the resort can use the half pipe for snowboarders below the Snezhanka peak, close to the Snezhanka hut free of charge. Small 30-seat ratrack train takes tourists from Murgavets hotel to Mechi Chal peak.
YT
@barmy-army.org.uk
Bulgarian tourist company Yulen, which operates the ski facilities in Bansko under a 30-year concession, was named top investor in Bulgaria's tourist sector for 2003 over the company's $37 mln investments in Bansko ski centre upgrade, which is to be completed by 2005, aiming at turning Bansko into a modern international resort.
Yulen set up a new 6.2 km cable car line to link the ski resort and the ski slopes in Banderishka Polyana locality in Pirin mountain and a new four-seat chair lift equipped with shields protecting from wind and snow. Yulen bought 26 snowguns for production of artificial snow from the Italian snow-making systems producer TechnoAlpin, which will extend the season in the resort until May 2004.
Borovets was the first ski resort which embarked on developing local infrastructure. Private industrial group MG corporation, which acquired local infrastructure company Borosport in 2002, upgraded three of the ski runs for night skiing and installed six snowguns for artificial snow in 2002. Investments for the 2003 winter season focused on ski infrastructure maintenance and in purchases of new snow equipment. The resort offers a special half-pipe snowboard run. The winter tourist season will officially start on December 21, 2003.
Pamporovo ski resort management company, Pamporovo AD, focused its 2003 investments to snow attractions. Visitors to the resort can use the half pipe for snowboarders below the Snezhanka peak, close to the Snezhanka hut free of charge. Small 30-seat ratrack train takes tourists from Murgavets hotel to Mechi Chal peak.
YT
@barmy-army.org.uk
re: Development in Bansko to continue into 2005
Dear YTI admire your enthusiasm and research for the up and coming resort of Bansko.
Please make sure that you give a full report of your experiences when you return.
It is certainly a resort that I and my fellow Bulgaria ski freaks want to try.
Thanks
Alfie Romeo
re: Development in Bansko to continue into 2005
Alfie
I will be doing that, I hope to be reporting on a GREAT time spent in Bansko, and I am sure it will be.
Going with a positive attitude and reading about the resort I am sure the surprises that some have experienced will not be too much of a 'shock'.
I really believe in development and admire the dedicated work the Bulgarian people, industry and Government have done with Bansko - remember not too long ago Bulgaria was still very Communist.
Looking forward to my holiday in Bansko ...
I will be doing that, I hope to be reporting on a GREAT time spent in Bansko, and I am sure it will be.
Going with a positive attitude and reading about the resort I am sure the surprises that some have experienced will not be too much of a 'shock'.
I really believe in development and admire the dedicated work the Bulgarian people, industry and Government have done with Bansko - remember not too long ago Bulgaria was still very Communist.
Looking forward to my holiday in Bansko ...
Alfie
I will be doing that, I hope to be reporting on a GREAT time spent in Bansko, and I am sure it will be.
Going with a positive attitude and reading about the resort I am sure the surprises that some have experienced will not be too much of a 'shock'.
I really believe in development and admire the dedicated work the Bulgarian people, industry and Government have done with Bansko - remember not too long ago Bulgaria was still very Communist.
Looking forward to my holiday in Bansko and may it be followed by many others. Some have said that not many Brits go to Bansko yet, I know of 10 from Essex who are going on the same date so there will be a little bit of Britain in Bansko for the week we are there.
Are we going for fun? Yes
Are we going for great skiing? Yes
Are we going with a open mind? Yes
Will we come back delighted? What this space!!!
Kind Regards,
YT
I will be doing that, I hope to be reporting on a GREAT time spent in Bansko, and I am sure it will be.
Going with a positive attitude and reading about the resort I am sure the surprises that some have experienced will not be too much of a 'shock'.
I really believe in development and admire the dedicated work the Bulgarian people, industry and Government have done with Bansko - remember not too long ago Bulgaria was still very Communist.
Looking forward to my holiday in Bansko and may it be followed by many others. Some have said that not many Brits go to Bansko yet, I know of 10 from Essex who are going on the same date so there will be a little bit of Britain in Bansko for the week we are there.
Are we going for fun? Yes
Are we going for great skiing? Yes
Are we going with a open mind? Yes
Will we come back delighted? What this space!!!
Kind Regards,
YT
