Romania\'s national tourist board, ANAT, has announced that at least 10 000 Romanians will spend Easter in Bulgaria. Thousands of Romanians intend to spend the Easter holidays in Bulgaria, where a two-night, all-inclusive package could cost as little as EUR 30, a representative of the national tourist agency association, ANAT, told media, balkantravellers.com reported Friday. Until now, a total of 80 000 Romanians have bought Easter tourist packages, 30 000 of them for vacations abroad, Traian Bădulescu, spokesperson of ANAT announced. As a comparison, last year 35 000 Romanians spend the Easter holidays abroad and 80 000 headed to domestic resorts. The average prices for a one-person package this year are...

Appreciating Assets Ltd., an Irish based investment fund, is buying up properties on Bulgaria\'s Black Sea coast, primarily targeting UK and Irish owners who bought during the boom years and are now desperate to sell, the International Herald Tribune reported late Friday. \"You\'ve got a number of people who agreed to buy property off-plan [pre-construction] and the people can\'t come up with the remaining balance of funding,\" said the company director Dylan Cullen. Cullen\'s group has raised €7 million for its Bulgaria-focused fund (about million), he says. And so far there has been no shortage of interested sellers. Since mid-December the group has completed on 22 purchases and another 15 are pending, Cul...

Bulgarian Laura Chukanov, who became Miss Utah USA 2009 and will now go on to represent the Beehive state in the prestigious Miss USA pageant on April 19, cherishes great hopes that she will win the crown. \\\"I will try to convince everybody that I am a clever girl, I speak several languages and deserve to be Miss USA 2009,\\\" Laura said in an interview for Darik radio. Chukanov came to the Salt Lake City, United States from Sofia, Bulgaria, when she was a 4-year-old girl. Her father is a scientist who was invited to California for research purposes. His work then brought him and his family to Utah in the early 1990s. \\\"My parents used to say that they want me and my brother to have better opportunities...

Interview with Ventsislav Tanchev, CEO of Suntours company, which represents German tour operator Alltours in Bulgaria Q: What is the drop in preliminary bookings from Germany for Bulgaria? Can you make forecasts for the whole summer season on the basis of these figures? A: German bookings for Bulgaria mark a fall of 20% on average year-upon-year. The drop ranges from 10% -15% to 25%-30% with the different tour operators. The fall in bookings at Alltours, whose representatives in Bulgaria we are, stands at 18% to this date. Bookings started at the levels from season 2008 when the tourist brochures for the Bulgarian market came out and the downward trend was gaining speed with each day. Things hit rock bottom i...

An updated version of the Management Information System for ISPA/Cohesion Fund under Council Regulation 1164/94 (ISPA MIS) in Bulgaria has been installed on April 15, 2009 and its full functionality has been provided. Update is performed under contract between the Ministry of Finance and the SAN CONSULTING Consortium, concluded on December 22, 2008. In the period 07-13 April 2009 training for the system users was performed under the contract. Training was attended by representatives from all authorities responsible for implementation of the projects, co-financed by Cohesion Fund 1164/94: the three Managing Authorities within the Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Environment and Water, Ministry of Regional Develo...

Interview with Shtelyan Kalchev, BrokerOwner of RE/MAX Connection, Veliko Tarnovo. Question: What can the Bulgarian real estate market do to survive the current global financial crisis? Answer: Bulgaria\'s economy is part of the world\'s economy so the financial crisis has and will definitely affect our market. Bulgaria counts a lot on international investments and usually in a crisis what happens first is that international investor companies cut their desire to grow. Investment funds have shrunk considerably in the past few months because of liquidity problems. Having said that this global crisis is also an opportunity; smart investors are currently searching the Bulgarian market for bargains. Mid-term an...

Interview with French porn producer, and owner of Woodman Entertainment, Pierre Woodman during Eros Show 2009, Sofia, March 25-28, 2009 Q: Is the atmosphere at this erotic show here in Sofia any different from that at similar events elsewhere? A: For me most of the shows are all the same. Except in France. Because, unfortunately, we have a large community of immigrants who create a lot of trouble every time, and may even scare people off from going to the show. Just three weeks ago I was in a city where 20 guys came in at a similar show, and destroyed one stand, and spanked the girl there. This is something that I can\\\'t understand, and its only in my country that these kinds of crazy things happen. But...

Interview with German-Bulgarian writer Iliya Troyanov. Question: Bulgaria loves being proud of the achievements of its immigrants. Would you say that Bulgaria has to the right to be proud of your achievements, given you family history? Answer: I think the problem with this patriotic pride is that it is usually not linked to a serious understanding of what the artist is doing. It\'s a knee-jerk reaction. They hear that someone is originally from Bulgaria, he\'s won a big award, he\'s famous in the world, so, \"Wow, we are proud of you.\" That of course I find ridiculous. When someone reads my books and says, \"I\'m proud of you\", that\'s absolutely ok because that\'s an expression of profound interaction, com...

The region is one of the 28 Bulgarian regions. It consists of eight municipalities – Ruse, Byala, Ivanovo, Tsenovo, Borovo, Slivo pole, Dve mogili and Vetovo, and the administrative region centre is the city of Ruse with 162 131 population. The north border of the region coincides with the state border and it goes along the Danube River. Its geographical situation characterizes it as an important European and republican transport crossroad. Here is the only bridge equipment over Danube River on the territory of Bulgaria. On the region territory, two of the European transport corridors (№7 and №9) are crossed and they ensure the connection between Baltic and North Sea regions on one hand and Mediterranean...

In Ruse District the necessary opportunities for a sustainable development of the tourist branch are given. The potential for the establishment of a specialized tourist product, which will offer alternative forms of tourism like cultural (exploration/knowledge), rural and ecological tourism, is determined by the very good geographical and transport location, the rich culture-historical heritage and the beautiful natural resources, concentrated on a comparative small territory. The three municipalities in the District - Ruse, Ivanovo and Dve Mogili have the best potential to offer tourist services. The most interesting objects are: The Archeological reserve “Ivanovo rock churches”, the Archeological reserve �...