Background

The Pirin Tourism Forum has been working for almost a year now on the 28 Rural Weekends Program for the development of rural tourism in the Pirin region. The goal of the program is to stimulate local initiative in the villages and bring motivation for new economic activities using the example of the neighbor . Therefore the PTF decided to select 28 model villages that would become the first to offer weekend packages at the Bulgarian tourism market.

In the summer of 2001 the PTF team visited all the 256 villages in Blagoevgrad District, made over 2000 photographs and collected information about the population, housing funds, infrastructure and public services, the natural, cultural and historical heritage of each village. The project called Rural Tourism in Pirin was funded by the Bulgarian Charities Aid Foundation under the Democracy Network Program of the ISC and USAID.

Practice

In September 2001, the PTF started a project called Training Local Authorities from the Pirin Region in Finding Alternative Models for Local Economic Development , funded by the Open Society Foundation in Sofia. One aspect of the project was the practical training, through participation, of local government representatives of four pilot municipalities (Simitli, Bansko, Razlog and Gotse Delchev) to help their citizens find alternative means of livelihood in the rural areas.

The other aspect was the analysis of human potential for rural tourism development in these municipalities. An initial selection of 25 (out of 40) villages was made in the beginning, on the basis of the following criteria:
Relatively low level of urbanization (deselecting urban villages located along the main roads);
Accessibility (existence of a road that can be used by a car);
Infrastructure and public services (electricity, water supply and sewerage, telephone connections, others);
Combination of favorable geographical location, cultural, historical and natural heritage;
Initial impressions (from the Rural Tourism in Pirin Project) on the general attitude of local people to the idea of rural tourism.

Meanwhile the PTF presented its cause to fourth-years from the Southwest University in Blagoevgrad. Ten of them were willing to take part in the project as volunteers. They received initial training and instructions at the PTF office. With the help of village mayors, a precise organization of the students visits to the 25 villages (10 in Simitli Municipality, 5 in Bansko, 5 in Razlog and 5 in Gotse Delchev) was made: arrival of volunteers in the village and visits to a number of houses/gardens; general meeting for project presentation and dissemination of feedback forms; transport of volunteers to the next village.

The organization, quite surprisingly, worked extremely well; volunteers came back tired but smiling. In two weeks time, they submitted their detailed reports to the PTF. Here are some quotations: I was deeply impressed by the high fences, locked gates and barking dogs behind them, while in the next village it was easy to see that all doors were unlocked and everyone was leaving their belongings back in the yard. The village of Gostoun is surrounded by so many hills that we could easily say each inhabitant has its own hill. What rural tourism can we talk about in a village that is surrounded by the E-79 International Highway, from one side, and the Sofia-Koulata Railway, from the other?

The PTF thanked its volunteers by paying every effort to make their work visible in the local and regional media. A Christmas event was also organized where the volunteers received honorary diplomas and presents.

Results

As a result of the volunteers work, 631 feedback forms were returned to the PTF office. Through these, the inhabitants of the 25 villages declared their readiness to invest effort, time and money in tourism development in their village. In December 2001, an independent commission comprising representatives of the Ministry of Economy, the Regional Government of Blagoevgrad, the Economic Faculty of the Southwest University, and the PTF, analyzed the received information and selected the first five out of the 28 model villages in the Pirin region: Senokos and Soushitsa from Simitli Municiplaity, Kremen from Bansko Municipality, Dobarsko from Razlog Municipality, and Lazhnitsa from Gotse Delchev Municipality. In January 2002 the PTF team visited the five villages, met the people and held short trainings on rural tourism in general, the legal requirements, the market rules, etc. The arrival of the first tourists, however, requires further time and efforts.