The Bulgarian Association for Alternative Tourism (BAAT) has announced the start of the Green House competition, which will assess guesthouses and family hotels in Bulgaria on the degree to which they use sustainable practices in their accommodation of tourists.

The competition is taking place for first time in Bulgaria; all houses that fulfil the European Centre for Ecological and Agricultural Tourism (ECEAT) criteria will receive the ECEAT certificate after evaluation by a specialised committee. The winner will also be awarded a honorary diploma, a special page in the fifth edition of the bilingual Bulgarian-English guide Guesthouses and Family Hotels 2009 and on BAAT's website. In addition, there will be written an article about the winning guesthouse or family hotel in the Bulgarian-language magazines HoReMag and Bacchus.

Candidates can apply until September 30 2008 via the BAAT webpage; the fee for competing is 100 leva.

The main criteria to be assessed will be environmental responsibility, authenticity and hospitality. According to BAAT, the quality of such small-sized tourist facilities will be evaluated through personal contact, authenticity of atmosphere, quality of homemade food and to what degree the natural environment has been preserved. Tourists staying at a given facility should also render minimal impact on the environment in the area and should support the local community.

BAAT currently has 92 members, including 45 locations that offer accommodation, most of which are guesthouses in rural areas, Kiril Kaloyanov from BAAT told The Sofia Echo on August 19. The other members of the association are 20 tour operators that offer alternative tourism opportunities in Bulgaria, and non-governmental organisations.