Google celebrates Bulgaria's Baba Marta

Baba Marta's charming smile is enchanting the virtual world as the home page of Google, the world's biggest web search engine, was also draped in a Bulgarian Martenitsa on March 1 2011.

Google has a list of important dates and holidays for preparing special holiday logos, which it does regularly. They can be both on global scale and can be seen on the main page of Google by a worldwide audience, or they can be local with more limited exposure, as it it the case with Baba Marta.

Baba Marta is a mythical character in Bulgarian folkore, whose name is associated with the month of March.

Martenitsi, traditionally made from twisted red and white thread, are considered to symbolise a wish for good health, and are seen as the heralds of the coming spring and the renewal of life in general.

In 2010, the Bulgarian and Romanian-language versions of the search engine were draped in Martenitsa colours (known as Mărţişor in Romania and Moldova), but this year, Google put the reworked logo on its main site.

Source: sofiaecho

Spain reduces the speed limit to 110 kph on March 7th

The Spanish government has decided to reduce the speed limit on dual carriageways to 110 kph to help people save petrol. The law, which was announced by the Government Vice-president and Interior Minister, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, will come into effect on March 7, and has been announced as a provisional measure, although no mention was made of when it might be lifted.

The government claims the sole purpose of reducing the speed limit from 120kph to 110kph is to help people survive the constant rises in petrol prices, mainly due to the situation in Libya.

Meanwhile, Renfe (Spanish Railways) will reduce the price of medium and short distance train tickets to encourage people to use trains.

Discussions underway for Euro Vegas in Spain

Casino king, Sheldon Adelson, CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, has announced he wants to build a "Euro Vegas" in Spain. Discussions are underway, he says, with officials in Madrid and Barcelona, for a massive Las Vegas Strip-style casino resort with hotels offering some 20,000 rooms.

Marbella top spot in best beach ranking

MARBELLA has the best rated beaches in Spain, a new study shows.
It was followed by Ibiza and Lanzarote respectively. This was revealed by Oak Power Communication (OPC) which studied the position in international media of Spanish tourism brands amongst 600 journalists around the world.

Research shows that the region of Andalucia enjoys the best ‘brand image’ in Spain. As a general tourist brand, Andalusia was rated 7.9 out of 10 by journalists, followed by Madrid andBarcelona, with 7.3 and 7.1 respectively.

“Journalists value Spain’s purely Spanish spirit, strength and passion, as well as the enormous improvement in infrastructures and the quality of services in the past years” Maria Asenjo from OPC explains.

Madrid has the best image as a tourist city, with the Museo del Prado; and the Camino de Santiago wins in the category of natural destinations.

And with high profile visitors like Michelle Obama, it is perhaps hardly surprising Marbella was voted the third trendiest and most fashionable cities in Spain.

Meanwhile, the Prado Museum in Madrid is the best valued element of Spain’s artistic and tourist heritage, followed closely by the Alhambra in Granada.

Bulgaria Properties 13th Most Attractive to British Buyers

Bulgaria has made it to the thirteenth spot in a new ranking of property markets, which remain popular for foreign mortgages among Britons.

The Bulgarian market has attracted 1.3% of the searches for properties abroad at the site of Rightmove Overseas in January, while their number increased by 40,5% over December.

Britons continue to be attracted most by the idea of taking out a foreign mortgage for a property in Spain, the ranking shows.

Australia, New Zealand and Canada have recorded the highest increases in the searches for properties on the site, up by a whopping 114%, 91% and 80%.

"We're still seeing healthy traffic and interest for quality properties, particularly in more authentic areas; smaller towns, inland locations and less resort style apartments," Robin Wilson, head of overseas at Rightmove, said.

Owning a second home abroad was once the preserve of the super-wealthy, but in the past decade a heady combination of TV property shows and cheap mortgages has convinced an estimated half a million Britons to buy their own place in the sun.

The value of UK-owned foreign property investments peaked at GBP 58 B in 2008, up from GBP 10 B in 2000.

Recently however British owners of second homes overseas have been selling up due to falling rental income and weakness of sterling.

The number of Britons, who have put up their property in Bulgaria for sale, nearly doubled in 2009 over 2010, data of realtor Bulgarian Properties show.

Source: novinite

Bulgarian Summer Resort Albena Expects 20% More Germans in 2011 Summer Season

The Bulgarian Black Sea resort Albena is expecting a 20% increase of Germantourists this summer, in comparison to last year.

Yovka Strashilova, Deputy Director in the Sales Department in the resort, said that last year the number of German tourists in Albena were 16% more than the previous year.

She has explained the increased interest with the advertising campaign, organized for the second consecutive year by Albena Jsc in cooperation with tour operators. In her opinion, the lower prices, compared to the years before the recession, are also attractive to German tourists.

Strashilova said she expected the number of Russian tourists to remain the same as last year, when it saw an increase of 30%. However, Romanian tourists might increase by 5%, she said, adding that their number went up by 3% last year.

"This summer, the resort is introducing its new system Dine around," Strashilova said.

The concept will allow tourists that are staying for at least 7 day in All Inclusive and Ultra All Inclusive hotels to be able to experience cuisines in different restaurants.

Albena's Director of Investor Relations, Petko Gerdzhikov, said that a total of BGN 3.8 M were invested in the resort last year. The expected investments for the new season are BGN 4.2 M.

Gerdzhikov has explained that the money have been used for reconstruction of the resort and improvement of the infrastructure.

He has also stated that according to the preliminary data, Albena ended 2010 with a profit of BGN 9.2 M.

Source: novinite

More than 1,000 Italians back from Libya

More than 1,000 Italians have been airlifted and shipped back from Libya over the last two days and Italy hopes to bring back a further 200 Friday, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said after talks with German counterpart Guido Westerwelle here.

Italy and Germany agreed on the need to protect all European Union citizens in Libya, the foreign minister said. Berlin also "fully understands, while not being a Mediterranean country, that the Mediterranean is Europe's frontier, on which we will have to do the most work in the near future," he said after Italy and other Mediterranean nations' pleas for more solidarity from the rest of the EU were met with reservations from many northern EU members Thursday.

So far Italy has received 6,300 North African migrants, all but 100 of them Tunisians, but there are Italian fears that the Libyan conflict may unleash a "Biblical" exodus. OBAMA, BERLUSCONI AGREE ON COORDINATED RESPONSE.

United States President Barack Obama phoned Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi as well as Britain's David Cameron and France's Nicolas Sarkozy Thursday night to agree a joint response to the Libyan crisis.

Obama and Berlusconi agreed on the need for a coordinated multilateral response to ensure adequate humanitarian assistance and basic human rights, the White House said. Frattini said Friday Italy agreed on a proposal for "targeted sanctions" to deter Gaddafi from shedding more blood.

Smoking Ban in Marbella, Costa del Sol, Spain

The Marbella restaurant that has made a name for itself nationwide for blatantly defying the smoking ban could end up paying dearly for its rebellion. Last week Thursday the head of the Andalusian Health Department, María Jesús Montero, announced that later that day the Asador Guadalmina would be closed down as a “provisional and precautionary” measure in response to the owner’s “clear and permanent disobedience and infringement” of the no smoking legislation. After four hours of tension on Thursday evening, the restaurant owner reluctant agreed to comply with the order to close his business.

Montero specified that the provisional closure is for a period of two months and if the owner does not abandon his position he will be fined 145,000 euros and the matter will be passed on to the courts. In this case the department will propose that the precautionary closure of the restaurant is maintained until a court decision is made.

Thursday’s decision comes after the Junta de Andalucía delivered the notification of its proposed fine, 145,000 euros, on Tuesday. The restaurant owner, José Eugenio Arias, was given two weeks to make any claims against the fine.

At the beginning of January, José Eugenio Arias declared that he was openly against the new smoking ban and that he would continue to allow smoking in his restaurant.

It has taken the Health Department at the Junta de Andalucía since the beginning of January to decide on what action was to be taken against the Asador Guadalmina, whose owner has bragged about his disobedience of the law that banned smoking inside bars and restaurants from January 2nd. In the end they opted to issue an intermediate fine, a quarter of the maximum of 600,000 euros applicable for a serious infringement of the Ley General de Salud (General Health Law).

According to a statement made by the regional government, the closure and proposed fine respond to an infringement of the General Health Law for “repeatedly ignoring the request made by the health authorities” for the restaurant to comply with regulations and stop allowing smoking on the premises.

Nevertheless the law firm representing Arias maintains that the Junta’s decision amounts to ‘abuse of law’ as it is based on the General Health Law, instead of the new Anti-Smoking Law. Sources told EFE that the smoking law does not allow the authorities to close a business down and that the Junta has resorted to the General Health Law to “escape” the first regulation.

Town Hall silence

While it is the jurisdiction of the regional authority to take action against infringement of the General Health Law, the Town Hall can also impose penalties, up to 10,000 euros, for the failure to comply with the Anti-Smoking Law that declares all bars and restaurants smoke free zones. The Local Police visited the restaurant last January and the Junta has sent the Town Hall information of its disciplinary action, but as yet the local authority has not made a move.

The regional government maintains it has more than enough reason to act. “The penalty responds to the degree of intent, and in this case the owner has been aware from the beginning that he was committing an offence and has at no moment indicated that he will abandon his attitude”, continues a statement from the regional government.

The restaurant’s defiance of the smoking ban has angered the owners of other establishments in the Guadalmina area, who accuse the Asador of unfair competition. Last weekend restaurant owners complained to the SUR Newspaper that they were losing customers who were attracted to the Asador due to its defiance of the law.

Response

On Thursday the owner of the Asador Guadalmina, José Eugenio Arias, stated that the decision to close his business down amounted to “corruption”. “Nothing has changed”, he said, “I will continue my campaign. Everything’s the same”. The business owner admitted that he had lost this first battle but that he would continue to fight until the end. He accused the Government of being "dictatorial, marxist and terrorist" and said that he would open a new restaurant in new premises in the area in order to continue with his crusade.

On Tuesday Arias was not on the premises to greet the health department inspectors who delivered the notification of the proposed fine. He was in Madrid drumming up support for his crusade against the smoking ban that came into force on January 2nd. However he made it quite clear that he has no intention of handing over the money if the fine was confirmed. “I’m not going to pay, firstly, because I haven’t got the money, and secondly, because Justice is on my side”, he told the SUR newspaper.

“All they want to do is scare the industry”, said the businessman who was not fazed by the announcement that his restaurant was to be closed down. “It is an administrative issue. They can’t close me down. Only a judge can do that with a sentence and that would take four or five years”, he argued last Tuesday, convinced that by that time he will have overturned the smoking ban. Meanwhile he continues to collect signatures against the law (he says he has 100,000) and has announced an association to be called ‘Reforma o Ruina’ (Reform or Ruin).

All the same despite his proclaimed conviction that there are no legal grounds “for any action against me”, he eventually followed advice from his lawyers to abide with the decision and tell his staff to temporarily abandon their posts. Meanwhile he has instructed his lawyers to prepare claims in an attempt to overturn the closure.

Record High Gas and Fuel Prices in Bulgaria

The effect of the sharp increase of oil prices triggered by mass protest and turmoil in a number of Middle East countries is felt in Bulgaria where gas prices are the highest in the last two years.
In the course of just several weeks, gasoline is up by BGN 0.1 per liter, and BGN 0.3 per liter, or the staggering 10%, since the beginning of the year.
A liter of A 95 is currently BGN 2.4 while diesel is BGN 2.4
The oil price hike has the most negative effect on Bulgaria's farming and transport with some companies already upping the prices of their products and services in order to compensate for the expenses.
Meanwhile, economic experts, cited by the Bulgarian daily Dnevnik, say they are not worried about a serious inflation over the Middle East crisis and the "oil shock" will be temporary. They, however, warn a prolonged crisis will accelerate inflation, shrink demand, and slow down economic recovery.

Bulgaria Buildings Permit Declined

The number of residential and administrative building permits issued in Bulgaria continued to decrease in the last quarter of 2010, with only industrial permits registering a slight increase in built-up area on a quarterly basis, according to National Statistics Institute (NSI) data.


Municipal authorities granted 1152 housing permits between October and December 2010, down 12.1 per cent against the previous quarter and 14.2 per cent year-on-year.


The greenlighted housing properties are seen to accommodate 2705 apartments with a combined floor space of 377 727 sq m.


Most of the permits for new homes were issued in the cities of Bourgas, Sofia and Varna.


Administrative permits dropped by 7.1 per cent in quarterly terms and by 17.5 per cent on the year to 52. The buildings will cover 30 940 sq m of built-up area, down by 7.1 per cent compared with the previous quarter.


The number of permits for projects categorised as "other buildings" fell 8.7 per cent to 1108 compared with the previous three months, but their gross area climbed 3.2 per cent to 609 019 sq m.

Tourism Sector of Bulgaria in 2011

Positive news for the Bulgarian tourist sector, as Minister of Economy Traicho Traikov declared a five per cent growth in 2010 from the previous year, and predicted up to 10 per cent growth in the industry for 2011, Dnevnik daily reported on February 17 2011.


Traikov made the statement at the opening of the Holiday and Spa Expo in Sofia.


According to Traikov, analysts are expecting 2011 to be particularly positive for summer tourism, with growth projections estimated at up to 10 per cent.


At the start of the winter season, major hoteliers and tour operators predicted that recovery from the global crunch would start this year. To prove the trend, Bulgaria's major airports in Sofia and Plovdiv reported of an increase of charter flights from the United Kingdom and Russia, as well as growing interest from neighbouring countries.


"Tourism is one of the economic sectors that have fared well in the crisis," Traikov said.


The constant strikes in Greece might have contributed to the recovery of the Bulgarian sector as well. Interminable industrial actions, riots, airport and public transport closures will have inevitably played an effect on holidaymakers' choice of destination. It is possible that Bulgaria, for a change, might have been on the receiving end of something positive, from all that turmoil in Greece.


The Bulgarian Tourism Ministry also banks on an international television promotional campaign, featured on four channels: Euronews, National Geographic Channel, Discovery Channel and Eurosport which advertise Bulgaria as a must-see tourist destination in Europe.


The initiative, launched by the Ministry of Economy, is worth 7.5 million leva, financed by the Regional Development operative programme. The promotional clips feature Bulgaria's summer and winter tourist destinations, environmental and rural tourism and the country's cultural historic heritage.


The clips aim to reach about 608 million viewers in the European Union.