According to Zoritsa Stavreva of the Bulgarian Association for Alternative Tourism (BAAT), Bulgarian family hotels and guest houses are, as a whole, of high quality. Specifically, she said to industry magazine Ho Re Mag, this applies to licensed and rated hotels that have had a few years’ operation experience. According to Stavrena, this pertains even more so to smaller hotels than to larger ones, due to the personal investment – both financially and emotionally – of the proprietors and care that the proprietors show towards their clients. And though smaller hotels market themselves independently, foregoing much or any help from large-scale advertising, they manage to sell themselves well because of their valuation of the client as a person, not just as a money source.

In line with this is the 25-per cent increase seen in rural tourism in 2006 as compared with 2005. The chairperson of the managing board of the Association of Bulgarian Villages, Borislav Borissov, said this at an October 16 news conference hosted by Bulgarian news agency BTA. In the about 200 villages offering professionally developed rural tourism opportunities, said Borissov, there are about 500 guest houses and small family hotels, though not all have received official ratings.

Areas around Veliko Turnovo, Blagoevgrad and the southern Black Sea coast had the most developed business. Such locations can be found in the bilingual Bulgaria Guidebook of Bed & Breakfasts and Guesthouses, published by BAAT annually.

The Association of Bulgarian Villages was set up at the end of summer 2006, with the purpose of helping to protect the interests of Bulgarian villages, solve their problems and attract investments. The association also plans to set up a data base containing information about each village offering rural tourism, according to BTA.