Restart of the Winter Season in Bulgaria: Heavy Snow and many Tourists in Pamporovo and Chepelare

At the moment, the snow cover in Pamporovo is 80 cm, and the owners of the tourist centers cannot be happier about their numerous clientele, which fills the ski slopes, hotels and restaurants. This year, nature smiled favorably on the Rhodope winter resort. Unlike the ski centers in the rest of Bulgaria, and in the whole of Europe, in the most critical period, when almost summer temperatures brought those working in the industry and lovers of snow emotions to the brink of despair, in Pamporovo it was relatively cold, and even overcast snow. Thanks to this, part of the slopes in the resort were covered with snow, Pamporovo JSC announced. This is also the reason why this year many skiers chose the Rhodope resort over the Alps, which has become one of the most sought after in Europe. And now, after the heavy snowfalls over the whole country, all tracks in Pamporovo are already working at full steam, claims Kostadin Belenozov, an expert on tourism in Chepelare municipality:

"The occupancy of the hotels in Pamporovo is over 80%. The guests from Turkey and Ireland predominate, there are also many Bulgarian tourists. The conditions are excellent and everyone is very satisfied. The resort complex did the best with the situation and got it under control! Even though there was no snow throughout the country and in Europe, our skiing conditions were the best in Bulgaria. And at the most critical moments, the pistes became skiable because the Pamporovo team managed to cover enough pistes with artificial snow. The prices of half-day and one-day ski passes kept the values from last year and generally vary between BGN 52 and BGN 85."

After winter finally returned to Bulgaria last week, the neighboring resort town of Chepelare quickly filled up with skiers eager to catch up. 90% of the guests here are Bulgarian. At the moment, the so-called the red track of the ski center "Mechi chal" above the town. Sabi Madankov, chairman of the Association of Hoteliers and Restaurateurs in Chepelare does not hide his relief:

"It is snowing nicely, there are conditions for skiing. The ski center Mechi chal is open from Friday. What is new this year is that the municipality is financing the construction of a children's ski center, in the town of Chepelare itself, with a mini ski tow one lane and many attractions for children. And the most interesting thing is that all this will be free of charge. But for us the most important thing was to have skiing conditions. Are there skiing conditions, people are coming back! The temperatures have dropped and you can also do artificial snow. And the forecasters promised that more snow will fall during the week and then the other slopes of Mechi chal will also work. There are also cross-country ski trails, snowshoe trails, etc. in the area. Traditionally, in Chepelare, the season is very strong during February and until March 10. So we hope for good results".

In addition to the new children's ski center in the "Dyortevoto" area, which will be opened at the beginning of February, Chepelare awaits its winter guests with two brand new marked routes. One of them starts from the city itself and leads to a centuries-old water mill, and the other - from the lower station of the "Mechi chal" lift and crosses the "Yanchovitsa" area, where traces of an ancient cave dwelling from the Stone-Copper Age have been found. "The routes are also accessible in winter, they can be traversed both on foot and with sleds," says Madankov.

/BNR

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