The Bulgarian Association for Business and Tourist Information (BABTI) is in a search for a symbol of Bulgaria. BABTI’s goal is to make Bulgaria recognisable abroad, with an image that differs from the one created by some Western media, BABTI said.

BABTI’s initiative will have three stages. During the first stage, people can make suggestions about the 33 natural, cultural and historic sites, foods and drinks already selected by BABTI, via its website www.infobulgaria.info. The second stage will start on June 1 and will continue till December 24, when everyone can vote for his choice. In mid-January 2008, the results will be announced.

While BABTI is selecting a symbol of Bulgaria, the country’s bus carriers are facing a crisis.

It all comes in the name of the low cost-air carriers that are starting to flood the Bulgarian travel market. On April 4, Ivailo Konstantinov from Bulgaria’s association of bus operators told Bulgarian-language Darik radio that Bulgarian bus companies running international routes could soon put out of business by the rising number of budget airlines offering cheap flights to and from the country. According to Konstantinov, within a year or two, the volume of bus passenger traffic to and from Bulgaria could fall to 10 per cent of the current figures. Bus fares on international routes have reached a critical minimum, Konstantinov said.

“No company will accept losses forever and some Bulgarian carriers will start closing down international lines,” Konstantinov said. The traffic that Bulgarian companies had has already decreased by half and Konstantinov said that there was no sign that the trend would stop.

How the arrival of the low-cost airlines will affect Bulgarian tourism market is yet to be seen. Reality is that one after another, the European budget companies are opening regular flights to Sofia. The winter and summer seasons are also an attractive marketing point for the airlines.

In response, some of the major players, such as British Airways and Malev Hungarian Airlines, have decreased the price of some of their flights known as a “last-minute call”. This makes it possible for a customer to obtain a cheap, regular flight ticket hours before the scheduled flight. With this, the major airlines have responded to the competition of the low-cost airlines.

At present, it seems that the first victims of this competition clash are to be the Bulgarian bus companies covering international routes. What Bulgarian carriers could hope for is to make some profit from selling tourist packages that include travelling by bus, which, however, would not compensate their losses.