Ski Police to Guard Bulgarian Resort Pamporovo

For the first time a ski police will ensure the good public policy at the slopes of the Bulgarian resort Pamporovo this winter, local media has reported.

Regular police officers and teams of the tourist company "
Pamporovo"
will participate in the patrol, the new executive director of the holding, Marian Belyakov has stated.

The goal is to avoid parking problems and incidents with drunken skiers and brawlers, violating the public order.

A total of 90 devices for artificial snow, including 20 new ones, will provide the snow coverage at 14 km of ski slopes in the upcoming winter season in Pamporovo.

The total length of the slopes in the resort in 37 km. They have all been rehabilitated and expanded. They have been installed with new signs that give information about the slopes and the safety of the skiers. About 200 m of safety nets have also been installed at the most dangerous parts.

For a second consecutive year skiers will be able to practice night skiing in Pamporovo. However, this year, the slope "
Snezhanka 2"
("
Snow White 2"
) will be fully illuminated, thanks to the newly installed 60 spotlights on the pillars of both sides of the slope.

Night skiing starts from 6:00 pm and could be practised until 10:30 pm. A special ski wardrobe will be built this year for the night skiers. A new ski and snowboard equipment will be delivered at the rest of the wardrobes.

Bulgarian Winter Resort of Pamprovo Aims at Local Tourists

Bulgaria's winter resort Pamporovo is reducing lift prices starting Sunday until the end of January, the resort's CEO, Mariyan Belyakov, announced.

The daily lift pass is going down from BGN 50 to BGN 42 for adults and from BGN 30 to BGN 26 for children. The two-way ticket will be BGN 19, down from BGN 23.

Hotels in the resort are also going to reduce their prices, effective Monday.

The promotion is the third one at Pamporovo since the beginning of the winter season and aims at attracting more Bulgarian visitors.

At Christmas, the passes were reduced in half for five days, while around New Year's the adult pass was BGN 38.

Belyakov informs there is a significant increase in the number of Greek tourists over the close proximity of the resort to the Greek border, adding the Brits are still the most numerous, but the number of holidaymakers from neighbouring Balkan countries is constantly on the rise.

Bulgarian police ski patrols cite inebriated tourists as biggest threat

Conditions for mountaineering and skiing over the weekend were excellent, as serene and calm weather drove thousands of tourists up the slopes. Unfortunately, snow cover, at least on Vitosha mountain, is still disappointingly low for the time of year, which caused significant traffic jams on the Vitosho Lale piste for skiers and snowboarders.

Massive queues were also observed on the Simenovo lift, as thousands of people lined up in the afternoon to descend to Sofia on January 9 2011.

Pamporovo, one of Bulgaria's "
Big Four"
skiing resorts (Borovets, Bansko, Pamporovo and Vitosha) was also packed with tourists and skiers on Saturday and Sunday, as tourists revelled in the good skiing conditions;
but they also enjoyed the heightened security in the resort, with the presence of new police ski patrols.

"
I feel a lot safer, and I can see that the vast majority of tourists here feel safer with them (the police ski patrols) about,"
Vasska Avramova told Bulgarian National Television (BNT).

Police deployed on the mountain were working in conjunction with the Mountain Rescue Service (PSS) patrols.

The police often help tourists, who stray away from the designated slopes and guide them back, or alert the PSS who take charge from there. In the case of a reported missing child, "
the reaction is instant"
, the report said. Most children who go missing are found within minutes, and returned to their parents.

One of the biggest problems faced by police patrols is inebriated skiers. Skiers who are found to be under the influence on the slopes are stopped, their ski passes are confiscated and they are escorted away as they are considered a threat to themselves and other skiers.

"
We often have to pluck them out from the pine trees,"
said Alexander Dimitrov, a police officer. "
Moreover, they are often on difficult slopes, without having the skills to be there in the first place,"
he added.

In mid-December, Bulgarian authorities revealed a new campaign designed to highlight the dangers of drunk skiing by targeting British tourists, notoriously the most prone to over-imbibe.

With the start of the 2010/11 winter season, about 300 000 British tourists were expected to flock to Bulgaria's winter resorts. Some see no danger in mixing drinking with skiing;
however, in the winter and up the mountain, this is said to be particularly dangerous.

The issue was addressed with the co-operation of Sofia's British embassy which has worked on a campaign to be implemented with the help of Bulgarian authorities.

The campaign was discussed at a meeting between British ambassador to Bulgaria Steve Williams and Interior Ministry officials on December 13, the agency said. The campaign aims to raise awareness of the dangers involved in skiing under the influence.

From Novinite

Bulgaria-Greece Teams Start Policing Bulgarian Winter Resort

Bulgarian-Greek police teams will be patrolling Bulgarian winter resort Bansko.
Bulgaria's largest and most famous winter and ski resort Bansko will be patrolled jointly by Bulgarian and Greek police as of Monday, January 24, 2011.

The joint patrols in Bansko will be carried out under a bilateral cooperation agreement between the police structures of the two neighboring Balkan states.

The joint patrols are supposed to help with the safety and security of the numerous Greek tourists in Bansko, which is close to Bulgaria's border with Greece.

Greek Police Chief Lieutenant General Yiannis Rahovitsas is arriving in Bansko Monday to give the formal start of the joint patrols together with his Bulgarian counterpart and inaugurate the project.

The joint patrols in Bansko are the first of their kind in the relations between Bulgaria and Greece.

They will be the second joint patrols of the Bulgarian police with officers from a neighboring country as since June 2010 Bulgarian and Romanian policemen have been patrolling jointly the Bulgarian Black Sea resorts, which have seen a huge number of Romanian tourists in the past few years.