Article published on: 2008-02-12

 Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev put on hold the controversial project that was given the greenlight by the cabinet on February 7 for the setting up of a stated-owned company to develop and operate golf courses.

This became clear after the meeting of the Bulgaria's governing three-way coalition on February 9 and 10 in the resort town of Hisarya. The PM's press service announced that the idea for the state-owned Golf Development Ltd would be frozen "until a full-scale strategy for the tourist sector" was prepared.

After the PM himself declared that golf development was a priority, he then said that it would be something useful but that it needed to be included in the overall tourism development strategy. Only then would it be determined what role the government was going to play in the new golf company.

Such a strategy has already been prepared by the National Tourism Agency chaired by Aneliya Krushkina. However, golf is only vaguely mentioned in it as part of the measures for the development of the sports, adventure, and hobby tourism.

The idea about the state-owned golf development company has been put forth by the Regional Development Minister Asen Gagauzov who chairs a special working group.

As was announced, the aim of Golf Development Ltd. would be also to promote the sport and turn Bulgaria into a golf destination preferred by foreign tourists since golf tourism offers some of the highest profit rates in the world.

Experts pointed out that Bulgaria is set to prosper from golf tourism, given the success of Spanish and Portuguese golf developments.

Source: www.novinite.com and www.sofianewsagency.com