I was wondering what do you guys think about our opportunities to develop new or not so popular branches of tourism. Should we focuse only on summer(sea) tourism or we should attract more tourists with diversification.Vote and discuss now. :)

If we start a discussion, I'll adduce my knock-down arguments ;) but now I'd just say cultural tourism.

we have so much cultural tourism it's not even funny. just open the "100 national sites" booklet.

Definitely cultural tourism. Last year the remains and architectural monuments on Nebet tepe in Plovdiv were ranked the second most important landmark of Eastern Europe by Forbes. So, it turns out that foreigners can appreciate things that we never could. With just a few exceptions, our cities cannot generate significant tourist flow. Therefore, we should focus on our cultural heritage, natural phenomena, however, combined with good service and attitude. One can find beautiful nature everywhere, we cannot just rely that our nature is something that can't be seen elsewhere.
Besides, I have never considered sea holidays as tourism. The one has nothing to do with the other. They just target different customers.

AFAIK, Bulgaria has more mineral water springs than the rest of the EU and also the hottest ones.

So, it is obviously that we have to develop our SPA tourism.

I find it very strange that the SPA tourism is not listed above. :ohno:

We should focus on tourism itself, since we have conditions to develop any sort of tourism. But too much random construction surely doesn't help it. A bigger idea of that economics' sphere is what we need. Plus we already have tourism thread and I don't see much sense in that poll when you can pick only one option :dunno:

Eco. I'm not quite a big fan of museums, but I appreciate nature and hiking...

We can develop all but the congress thingy, each in its area. in fact we have already developed everything in terms of bases but infrastructure is in poor condition. I think there are 2 important things to develop and it aint a specific aspect but rather infrastructure (which includes grass and trees) and service. there has to be a University for tourism and people working in the tourism industry shouldnt be some kids passing time.

we should concentrate on a combination of several of these within a small region.. for example the bansko-razlog valley has great potential of ski, spa, eco, golf and cultural tourism and all these within a few kilometers..

Eco. I'm not quite a big fan of museums, but I appreciate nature and hiking...

I voted for the "Eco tourism" too. :)

I think several. The more you offer tourists the more atractive Bulgaria is. It is fast becoming a huge destination for Romanian tourists for both summer and shopping tourism, and increasingly for eco and winter tourism. However, if a tourist from further afoot can go 3 days to swim in Nesebar, thatn 2 days to some Thracian ruins than 2 days to stay in a monastery in Pirin, I think he would be most satisfied.

the sad thing is the people in charge are the biggest incompetent crooks imaginable.

I think several. The more you offer tourists the more atractive Bulgaria is. It is fast becoming a huge destination for Romanian tourists for both summer and shopping tourism, and increasingly for eco and winter tourism. However, if a tourist from further afoot can go 3 days to swim in Nesebar, thatn 2 days to some Thracian ruins than 2 days to stay in a monastery in Pirin, I think he would be most satisfied.

I guess this is something we should aim at. We lack two things - adequate infrastructure and, sorry Robi :), monasteries in Pirin - there are merely 4 monasteries there. This is the mountain with the least number of monasteries.

But, let's stick to the point. I think that such type of tourism provides all types of things to see in a single travel. The key is adequate infrastructure + adequate conditions and service. There is still much work to be done.

My vote goes to....Cultural tourism :cheers:

Not this one though .... :ohno::ohno::ohno:

http://photo-cult.com/pics/407/pic_10004889_0407524.jpg

Some pictures I took last summer (the 3rd of August 2008) at Studenec, near Pamporovo:

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/5250/dsc01173rk8.jpg

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/539/dsc01174kh3.jpg

http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/215/dsc01175cm3.jpg

http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/5175/dsc01178lw2.jpg

The old hut Studenec - the only building (except for the tea house) standing there for decades is now being upgraded:
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/7214/dsc01179nw7.jpg

I have tons of such pictures... I hope it makes a good advertisement of Bulgarian tourism!!!