A total of 600 000 tourists are expected to visit  Bulgaria's winter resort of Bansko this season. The prediction was 20 per cent higher than the actual number of visitors the previous winter, Bansko mayor Aleksander Kravarov told a press conference for the opening of the new season. The increase would come from the number of foreign tourists. The number of Bulgarians visiting the resort was expected to remain the same, Kravarov said.
Ski champions Rosi Mittermaier, Franz Klammer and Mark Girardelli attended the opening and participated in a ski demonstration, Dnevnik newspaper reported.
According to international ski websites Bansko is one of the fastest developing winter resorts in Europe. In the past two years more than 100 tourism facilities have been constructed. Investment in the resort reached 180 million euro in the past three years, Standart newspaper reported. A number of problems with infrastructure remain, however. Kravarov said that next year the municipality would invest 10 million leva in infrastructure modernisation. The sum is a fifth of the investment needed  for proper development, Kravarov said.