We are somewhere in Europe. Somewhere halfway between Bucharest and Corfu. About 7, 8 hours by car. The favorite place of ski lovers in this part of the continent. Especially from Romania.
Boy: I understand that it is a very popular resort.
Woman: Much more organized than in Romania.
Cristi Popovici, Observer reporter: It’s Bansko, Bulgaria. A place of captivating beauty but also a surprising success story. Because 30 or so years ago, Bansko was a mountain village with a ski lift and a chairlift.
From the village to the tourist resort
A village with 5 thousand inhabitants who mainly dealt with sheep. This is probably what he would have done even today, if, immediately after the fall of communism, there had not been a good idea and some Bulgarian businessmen who would put it into practice.
Cristian Zărnescu, Romanian investor in Bansko: They bought new technology, all you see, the ski lift and the cable car, and they opened the resort as you see today 75 km of slopes, around 16 ski lifts, a gondola, and they also invested a lot in snow cannons, they over 160.
In other words, the Bulgarian state agreed that it alone does not know what and how to make Bansko a tourist attraction, and privatized the location.
Cristian Zărnescu, Romanian investor in Bansko: There are some areas where they have moved very well, in Romania everyone probably wants to do for him. If the city hall worked as a team with the private sector and with help from the government, then everyone makes money.
Cristi Popovici, Observer reporter: Everything you see here was built especially after Bulgaria’s accession to the European Union and it is an interesting mix of European funds, with foreign investments and money from the government. This is because the Bulgarians wanted at all costs to make Bansko a pearl of tourism and they really succeeded.
The small mountain town gathers half a million tourists a year
More than all Romanian spa resorts combined. Today, Bansko has over 75 km of slopes, 3 times the length of those in Poiana Braşov. And European funds literally opened the way to Bansko. Bulgaria now has highway connections with all neighboring countries. Less with Romania.
Vladimir Mitev, Bulgarian journalist: The relations with Turkey and Greece were somehow more important, on the one hand they are richer countries, maybe the terrain also matters.
There was a time when, in Bulgaria, 5 kilometers of highway were built a day. So today, the road from Bucharest to Bansko takes about 7 hours. There are 542 km, of which 150 on the highway. Only to Bulgarians.
The town in Romania that had the same potential
Bianca Iacob, Observer reporter: I did more than 10 hours I think because it was a whole adventure all the way, the problem is that I still haven’t figured out where the ski area is. We are in Pasul Vulcan in Hunedoara, we did not choose this place by chance in comparison with Bansko. We are talking about a former mining area, with huge development potential because the area has beautiful landscapes. The development means hope for the area and somehow it started in 2011 with great joy and a lot of money.
Elena Udrea: For 20 years, here, no one has thought of a project that would give a chance.
Vulcan, 2011. The whole community had gathered at the base of the slope to see the miracle. The biggest cable car in the country was being inaugurated, for which the Ministry of Development, headed by Elena Udrea at the time, put 9 million euros at stake. The project started with the left. The officials were the first to climb to the top of the mountain with the brand new cable car and never came back. The installation has crashed.
9 million euro project, on the water of Sâmbeta
Bianca Iacob, Observer reporter: Today there is not much snow at Vulcan, the gondola does not work because the wind is strong up on the ridge, there are no tourists, but a little earlier two machines were working on a parking lot, the summit, also for tourists.
10 of the 14 slopes included in the project are below 1,600 meters, and on the southern side of the slope. That is, even if it snows, which happens quite rarely in recent years, the snow melts quickly.
Cristian Merişanu, mayor of Vulcan: The gondola in Vulcan operates at a loss. Around 100 thousand lei per year.
What should be done so that the gondola stops working at a loss? Another gondola.
Cristian Merişanu, mayor of Vulcan: We only need one more gondola at the end of our cable car up to the top of Straja, they have already arrived and then we make two stations linked by cable.
Radu Oprea, Minister of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism: When they made certain decisions and made investments, they knew what they chose.
In the land of investments for nothing, Pasul Vulcan is just an example
A proof of money thrown out the window, without logic and without any meaning.
Razvan Pascu, tourism consultant: Let’s check, we spent the money. So think that not only did we not attract all the European money that would have been due to us, but what we did attract, some of it went on very bad investments. Secondly, I think that even this fragmentation of the political class and the people who came to lead the ministry was not useful because it is not possible, consider that the minister of tourism has changed almost every year.
And now, there is not even a minister who deals exclusively with tourism.
Radu Oprea, Minister of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism: We have a program at the Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism aimed at increasing the ski area, for those with geothermal baths. Unfortunately, it has not been so accessed in recent years, the brakes I found were from inside the Ministry.
There are brakes and obstacles that come, at best, only from within. You can see this in Wednesday’s episode when we go to the seaside, both with us and with the Bulgarians. In the campaign, Choose what’s next!
Did you like this article?
Like
You can also follow Observator news on Google News and WhatsApp!
-
