As a foreigner who has now become almost an adopted Bulgarian, this country for me is a great holiday destination. The beach resorts, the mountains and rivers, the skiing, the spa centres with hot springs, the architectural and archaeological heritage – are all in a class of their own providing value for money in a pollution-free environment which few competing destinations can match. Whether you’re into hiking, biking, camping, boating, swimming, winter sports or just relaxing, we have excellent facilities for them all. And many hotels these days are very good.

Today we are doing well providing traditional family or peer group holidays for Bulgarians who can’t afford (or feel disinclined) to go abroad, and inexpensive holidays here for visitors from many other countries who are avoiding more opulent destinations in the current harsh economic climate. It’s sad however, or even embarrassing, that the advertisements screened on global news channels for visiting Bulgaria fall short of the seductive appeal you see in comparable screenings by Croatia, Egypt, India, Malaysia and Montenegro. The reality in Bulgaria is much better.

In addition to this presentational deficiency, we do still often shoot ourselves in the foot, at the margins, with potholes, rubbish, crumbling sidewalks, take-it-or-leave-it service and hotels accredited with too many stars. Also a reputation for indecisive government, abuse of EU funding and corruption at all levels of society. If we didn’t have such a refined tendency to under-sell ourselves, these weaknesses would not intrude so much.

July and August are the big holiday months so don’t expect to get major business deals closed at this time of year. For service providers it’s tough to have such seasonality, although the well established winter sports resorts provide a counter-weight. A global trend is now for special interest breaks all year round, which should help further. If you must stay in Sofia in high summer, join the trend of dressing lightly without formal business attire.

Where I work, at AIMS Human Capital, we have usually found the summer months to be busy ones, making it difficult to take all the holidays we’d like at the traditional time of year. Despite the recessionary conditions from which no country is immune, this year is no different. The jobs market and HR consulting work like trainings and outplacement have been encouragingly active – hopefully pointing to people and companies using the quieter economic times to re-focus career directions and invest even more in people development.

Still with a working focus, few people can operate effectively for long periods without a holiday. Its good management to insist on people taking their holidays, meaning nobody is indispensable. For key management and employees in fiduciary, financial or accounting posts, at every level from the top down, holidays should be mandatory. If Bernie Madoff had taken regular holidays and been obliged to delegate responsibility, his Ponzi schemes would have been exposed much sooner and billions probably saved.

It’s great if you can use holidays for re-charging your batteries, healthy sports and exercise, following a sensible diet, time with family, children, friends. Beneficial for us all to escape the TV, the PC, the noise and pollution of Sofia, the never ending traffic congestion. Nice, of course, if you can afford exotic destinations abroad, but still so much to be gained quite near home for very good value. It’s bad for you, bad for business if you shrug your shoulders and don’t take a holiday. And if you do, please drive carefully!