[size=75:1jy1vuh8]Sofia echo 2 January 2010

Bulgaria's Pamporovo tourist numbers hurt by warm weather


Unseasonably warm weather has hurt the number of tourists that Bulgaria's winter resort Pamporovo has hoped to attract, news agency Focus reported on January 2 2010.

Most of the tourists that spent New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in Pamporovo have already left the resort, Focus quoted the secretary of a local tourism chamber, Rossen Kefilev, as saying.

Most tourists were leaving a day or two early because they could not ski in the resort, otherwise they would have stayed until January 3, Kefilev said.

Warm weather blanketed Bulgaria in the last days of 2009 and record highs for the time of the year were reported in a number of Bulgarian towns and cities on January 1.

The weather is expected to change after the weekend, with cold air and snow expected throughout the country starting on January 3, a forecast that Bulgaria's recession-ravaged tourism industry will doubtlessly relish.

Pamporovo expects the first post-holiday season tourists to begin arriving during the week starting on January 4, with mostly Russian and Serbian groups booking extended trips, Kefilev said.