Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Cuts from the Conversation which took place yesterday in the PM office with representatives of the protestors:
-Protestor:-I am skier myself says one of the witnesses.I am not ecologist.I want to tell you that the majority of the demonstrators are my friend skiers and snowboarders and all of them were against this Act.
The problem is that at the present time ski lovers are tightly squeesed and counting the pennies to manage to go up the mountain and enjoy this sport.
This is it.
But just the other side of the border in Serbia. The lift passes there are 3 TIMES cheaper than in Bansko and Borovets.
In Austria in the best ski resorts in the world the lift passes are CHEAPER. Than in Bulgaria where there is probably one WC on the slopes as a extra.

''Speak in thru figures Please.- the government official interupts.

''Protestor's representative at the meeting:
-The last 6 years the lift pass in Bulgaria is 55leva.
Last year according the survey done by Kapital Group 70000 Bulgarians have gone to Austria to ski.!!! This is 70000 souls exporting their capital away .
How is Bulgaria going to become richer?
From what to survive the local population in the ski regions if their own coutrymen and women go to ski in Austria?
In Austria there are 25000km pistes ,In BG there are 200.

- Prime Minister, you are the government,list who is behind the offshore companies gripping Bulgarian resorts badly: Bansko (Ulen AD) and Vitosha ski company which is the owner of Vitosha ski area next to the capital we are asking!
If you spill the beans and we see who owns our mountains this will calm a little the situation on the street.
That's why our friends and snow lovers are on the streets tonight because what is on offer is a:
TIGHT MONOPOL of all of the mountains controlling every aspect (from the prices of ski lifts passes to the services which are very low because nobody of the owners want to invest in extras).
All of them just want to cash quick.
And this our government Act is offering the Monopol offshore owners huge present on a golden plate -our mountains which we love to and we don't want to give it as a present.
That's why this Act which is directly linked to all of the ski indusrty needs to be stopped and rewritten.
Imagine PM,I have an old banger all rusty but I wish to place a Jet engine in it and I am trying to convince you that that car will be running perfectly and it is going to be a smash hit.
We, the people on the streets tonight tell you that this Act is Lobbist and it is bought by them -the monopolistic owners of our ski resorts.

PM Boiko Borissov:
- By who?
........and on and on goes the debate.
Later on:
.Dear PM...-The logic is that this Act is directed in one area only.
The main difference between Bulgaria and Austria Switzerland is that the alpine infrastructure to be build in Bulgaria has to clear a lot of forestry around to make space for pistes.
Quite opposite in the Alps: The main part of the ski facilities is concentrated high in the mountain where there are no trees.
This is easier.
Have helicopters, plant the pilons, connect the rope and Bingo the lift is done!
After that make sure , at the start of winter, the snow track machines groom the pistes , model them so skiers can enjoy!
Not the same story for Bulgaria I am afraid.....
....The key is that for the 2 previous governments we all watch how literally 2 offshore companies are riding the 'horse' whe way they want and now The people on the streets think that the 2 governments are even afraid to look into the problem.
You will convince nobody if you do not punish them if you do not make the whole system very transparent we will not change our stand.
If you do not make them pay for careless behavior you will not show that you care about our country.
.....
.PM don't interupt the demonstrator!
Just a moment, continues PM Boiko Borisov, this winter we hosted 2 world comps in Bansko and one in Pamporovo.e
Everyone who I spoke with, said that the organisation was perfect.
I think Bansko at the moment is a European resort.

Don't you think so?
-PM, if you invide guest in you house if he is educated and polite person he will always say very good things about your house.
PM:-They(FIS) are not going to give us the hosting of 2 comp if we were not good enough.....yes this is our plan -advertisement.
Now all around the world they know where Bansko is.

Now you start to spit at BG ski resorts

..PM let me tell you when your government poured millions of euros to support the races,in the financial crisis what do you expect?
When you throw millions at the problem something will come in return.
Boiko the PM:- we are getting to know each other better.
Our conversation goes well.

-PM, There is nothing as for compensating the damage done if pistes which are built.
PM asking his officials immediate-is this in the Act?
-Governement official answers:
-NO
Boiko The PM:
-This morning I stated on BG TV that for each cut tree there are 10 new planted.
Is that true?
And is this in this Forestry Act.
Government official: -NO
If not then I had lied to Bulgarians...
...
PM, let me repeat that for example Dragalevski Lift on Vitosha has been opened on the 5th March 1953 on the same the day Stalin died.
This lift and many more facilities are well out of date.
PM why are telling me this all the the time.
-to remember well.
Can I mention something here-asking protestor?
PM-Go on!
Everybody knows that markets will preveil.
Yes but in Bulgaria there is no fare market.It is Monopol.
What we have is a one Cartel in the ski industries.this of course is not a free market.
PM-our goal is to offer choice :cheaper places or expensive ones like Bansko Borovets etc.
Yes PM but they will concrete their interests and there.

All in all the meeting was very constructive and there will be further meets in the coming days to try to find democratic solution.

NOTE: the above is a very small sections with cuts taken from the important meeting. At the time of the huge protestds taking place daily.

The cutts I translated were taken from the official document of the exact conversation without the borring bits.
And NO I have not been at this meeting.
I've no interest in banging my head against concrete walls.
Or having conversations with empty heads opposite me.
There are younger people which are very desperate and want to get better and to finally show and mark the few super rich (statistic shows disturbing high % of Billioners in the small Country of 6-7 million people)-so obviously with no democracy and return of the years just after the fall of the Iron Curtain when it was just stealing assets and land in all direction .
As far as you are concerned with interests in the same place - things don't look so good.
If you have bought your ski patch at the same time when 70000 BG skiers decide to vote with their feet and go on holiday in the Alps for quality time I would be more than concerned what is wrong with the place and will try not to pretend that there is nothing to worry and lie to myself.
Only this fact that 70000 have exported their cash away from BG ski resorts is a very worrying development indeed.
Terrible!
The ski lovers have decided to go:
-without the hastle of expensive lift passes
-with proper resorts
-good lift systems actually opened no matter the exact conditions and opening and closing on dates listed before the start of season.
-cheaper travel to and from them Alps resorts even for Bulgarians.
-cheaper accomodation
-Welcoming and Better experience.

I have spoken with many BG skiers and all of them(nearly 100%) say ONE THING
- they will never go back to the BG experience (only maybe have a day or two at weekends to ski BG ) but their proper winter holiday is always going to be elsewhere.
That is sad and that's why these demostrations a very important.Point a finger at the guilty , bring him to Justice fast, return the stolen fortunes,and start building reliable future accounting for all of the things which will bring more tourists like me and you,who will return and return time after time.
Rather that having the IMAGE of an ALCOHOLIC DESTINATION with organised pub crawls and attracting the worst of the worst from Europe and Beyond,
Wouldn't be better to build image of a Nature paradise, with facilities for skiing and beach for the future generations.
Wouldn't you feel better and more relaxed then investing
In a place like this?

More thoughts on this issue:
....It was not natural to shut the lifts in Vitosha last season.
(For those in the dark, last season the only behind the scene investor of Vitosha Ski-the same monster Tseko Minev who is waving the magic wand over Bansko for years and entering preservation Nature areas without punishment has managed to grip and blackmail the capital and decided to close totally the ski facilities on Vitosha which is one of the best short ski areas in Bulgaria with traditions and just next door to the Capital Sofia with her 2 million people.
So this Tseko Monster Minev decided to do some saving under the view that it is too expensive to comply with Eco and environmental rules and pulled the plug on the whole mountain.
Now he is lurking behind and trying to get the Act within the Government and to give himself Green light for Fast forest cull and modeling of the ground planting it with more concrete and buildings without paying anything in return.)

So I am asking : Where was the care last season about the skiers and snowboarders which has been trumpeting now as the sole reason. To push for this new Forestry Act?

It won't be natural Vitosha mountain and the other mountains in Bulgaria to become concrete Godzilla ski resorts exactly the same as the already extremely unpleasant and ugly beach resorts along the Black Sea.
It is not an excuse and the absolute fantasy tales about how a lot of foreign tourists will flock BG shores in droves you see.
They , the foreign tourists, won't leave for dry the quality resorts with traditions in Austria and Switzerland and head and venture into the BG hills which will become in no time wasteland, bold ugliness and at the foot at them creatures, will stay in some of the fat and over supplied hotel complexes surrounded by other contructural unwanted entities waiting for future demolishing .

Just today came the news that for 4th consecutive year the prices of properties in ski resorts is in a Solid downward direction.
It states that almost every single hotel for example in the "leading " BG ski resort Bansko is FOR SALE( officially at least every other hotel owner wants to part with their venture in this town-the other half is ready to sell immediately.
And this is from the big places for numerous 6 figures to any house Chalet or anything with 4 walls and a roof above on one or many floors.
Most Tragic is the situation for the apartments in the block of flats gripping Bansko on all sides.

There is no hope of selling for the thousands of unlucky owners because there is no one about ready to splash out and LOOSE in a flash in this day and age.

Just a reminder: before 2007 prices for that "dream" patch in the unappealing Bansko but with HUGE promise of a New Klondike,were hoovering around 1000 euros per m2 (quite often into 2grand bracket).
These days, under the table the rates are 2 to 300 euros.
Now you tell me where do you want to go ?

To a place drained in desperation and without clear vision for the future with the main investor which is with one leg in the dodgy underworld and hungry for his own off shore future,
or in a traditional resort somewhere in the Alps where tradition is the buzzword, where the building is suppressed to keep the sustainability , where everything is done with the foremost attention to detail and future in sight?
I constantly read here and there on this forum that you see, the numbers are up in Bansko (usually very predictable Entries from people which have made the wrong choice to stay in there or had a mad moment to buyand some even moved all lock and stock there and now want more company from fellow countrymen and women to share their existence and sorrow.

The way I look at them entries is:
Just simple business tactics to lure people and try to present only one side of the coin.
I am more than sure that the people in question will leave the same second when they get rid of whatever they have purchase by mistake and will leave the place for good. Even will try to erase it from their memories for good.

Until then though you will have to hear More BIG ideas for more lifts, more mileage ,more 'improvements', more Bright future etc etc .
Have a good week!

PS As for this Forestry Act the next Chapter is on:
-there won't be any government decision until there is reached full consensus between all camps.
We will all wait and see.

As for already created uncontrolable Monsters on the Black sea coast, only one example will help you to imagine what is the situation at the moment there.
On of the only Beach resorts -Sunny Beach which is located along one of the best wide and shallow beaches along the BG section of the Sea in the 80s was reaching the optimum with its 20000beds.Even then it was a bit cramped and crowded for the limited coast .
Now on the exact same beach behind that coast, the bed numbers is well above 300000.
And that has happened for mear 20-30 years uncontrolable construction.
I can not comprehend how's it Possible to cramp that many souls on the exact same place.
I know in the prison camps it is supposed to be tight but that tight is just beyond understanding.
I feel extreme unpleasure visiting the East coast in the knowledge of what it was then and what it has become lately.
Shame!
So it boils down to :
do we want the same Invasion in the mountains with thousands of flats unsold and unwanted in a decaying place just waiting for destruction??
With lifts used for 2 months and the rest is wasteland?
This is what was lurking in the Forestry Act.