Bansko villagers look over water damage after floods

Dozens of hotels and houses flooded, streets and pavements destroyed, vehicles smashed and an avalanche of mud. This was the aftermath of a mighty river bursting its banks on the night last May 17^th, in Bansko, Bulgaria’s upmarket winter resort in the Pirin Mountains.
Continue reading ‘Flood in Bansko ski resort ravages dozens of newly built hotels’

Vitosha mountain in summer.

More than 40,000 people have signed a petition protesting against the planned expansion of Vitosha ski area in Bulgaria.

Increasingly vocal environmental campaigners said that the proposed expansion of the ski runs and lifts, with resulting deforestation, was illegal, when it submitted the petition to the Bulgarian government this week.

The protests began in 2008 when lift operator Vitosha Ski reportedly cleared about two hectares of mountainside for new lifts and runs. It plans to expand the ski area by about 60 hectares, felling 33,000 trees in the process.

Continue reading ‘Petition surfaces fighting Bulgarian ski area expansion’

The Pirin mountains are being challenged by Bansko development companies.

Several ski resort developments in the Balkans, Carpathians and Dolomites have been under fire from environmental interests for their impact on protected areas and forests, and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is the latest to protest.

SkiRebel.com reported recently on UNESCO’s futile efforts to stop these developments, particularly at Bulgarian ski resort Bansko. The WWF, the global nature conservation organization, has published a review of several new ski projects planned for Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine.

Continue reading ‘WWF joins UNESCO in targeting European ski resort developments’

Jasna in Slovakia is one of Central Europe's up and coming ski destinations.

Ski destinations in Eastern Europe are becoming more popular with UK ski travelers, according to a travel search site.

Skyscanner says it has seen a 154 per cent rise this year in searches for winter flights from the UK to cities east of the Alps. The most popular eastern ski hubs are Krakow in Poland, Sofia in Bulgaria, Bratislava in Slovakia and Ljubljana in Slovenia. The site believes that the trends reflect the search for better value skiing this winter in light of the recession and strong Euro.

Continue reading ‘More British ski vacationers flocking to Eastern Europe’

The Pirin mountains are being challenged by Bansko development companies

Possibly all and proposed Bulgarian ski resorts are mired in multiple battles at various levels to allow for resort and ski area development to continue.
In an unusual twist, Bansko, the country and one of Europe’s most successful resorts of the past decade, is fighting against its UNESCO world heritage site status as it believes this will hamper its expansion.
The Bansko campaign against UNESCO status comes at the same time as the giant Italian Dolomiti Superski region is promoting the Dolomites newly awarded UNESCO world heritage site status as a major sales and marketing tool. Continue reading ‘Bulgarian ski resorts challenge opponents for development’

American President Theodore Roosevelt once said “speak softly and carry a big stick,” referring to the effectiveness of negotiating peacefully while threatening something fierce. Apparently the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) follows the speak loudly and carry a small twig philosophy.
The organization is all up in arms about ski resort development in Bulgaria’s Pirin National Park, which it granted World Heritage site status in 1983, a status that has been increasingly and repeatedly challenged by developers.
UNESCO has held five consultation meetings over Pirin since 2002, and at the most recent meeting the organization issued an ultimatum to Bulgaria, supported by a coalition of 30 Bulgarian environmental groups under the umbrella title For The Nature.  The challenge for UNESCO is that it does not have many  much legal way or ways to threaten.
Continue reading ‘Terse UNESCO demands towards Bulgarian ski resort developers are fruitless’

Bulgaria has developed an unwanted reputation in recent years for seemingly uncontrolled development of ski resorts on land which is supposed to be protected by national and international law.

However with Bulgaria now part of the European Union, Ski Rebel Magazine has learned the EC government is currently looking at numerous complaints by environmental groups about such developments, whilst public surveys in the country have also revealed most of the population is against illegal ski resort development.
Continue reading ‘Bulgarian ski resorts under investigation for overbuilding’