Nice Places in Bulgaria. Bulgaria Guide.

Mountain Bike Village in Bulgaria | Changemakers
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A master in tourism, a sociologist, a MTB guide, a tourist guide, cultural science student, web designer and developer and video editor. Apart from that I'm skilled mountain biker, so by now, I want to put my passion and working efforts in combining obtained skills in working in a NGO with the love of nature, tourism and mountain biking. Apart from that ongoing information campaign will inform both residents and tourist about nature preserving, trash recycling and so on.Is your initiative financially and organizationally sustainable? Apart from that, hosts and guides will be giving mouth to ear additional information about interesting facts and details about the area, mountain biking, nature, culture, tradition and heritage. Apart from that, local residents will provide supplies as food and drinks, all prepared or produces in the village. Bulgarian government is really heavy and corrupted institutions to expect any kind of help from it. Clearly define how you measure quantitative and qualitative impact in terms of how your approach contributes to the sustainability or enhancement of local culture, environment, heritage, or aesthetics? Connections with travel agencies are a key point for sustainability, so they can disseminate the destination, while providing large number of tourists to the MTB Village. Cycling is a unique mean for transportation which minimize the negative impact for the environment, meanwhile it can bring lot of people to any particular location. For making our innovation sustainable in future, we need to be granted by a fund, so we can mark special bike trails, buy another house for accommodation and renovate it, prepare, print and disseminate print materials for promoting the destination. For two years I have been working in a NGO dealing with contemporary art and culture. Guidebooks, brochures, labels and signs will be disseminated for promoting the destination and educating both travelers and local residents about the are and it's unique opportunities. How do you motivate them to act responsibly in their future travel decisions?Information about the area and it's natural and cultural values will be provided at different levels. How does your approach minimize negative impacts?We are at the start of creating unique tourist product. How has the community responded to or benefited from your approach?We have established connection with part of the residents, who will provide services as accommodation, transport, logistic help to the tourists. How is it innovative?MTB is not a popular sport in Bulgaria there are few nongovernmental organizations and just one online media for promoting this "sport", or as I prefer to call it - "tourism". How is your initiative currently financed? If available, provide information on your finances and organization that can help others. In conclusion this product will benefit to all of the residents in this rural area, stimulating them to keep their unique way of life in conditions of urbanizing and global world.Describe your approach in detial. It is a barrier, which will be overcame near future. Many people will have the chance to try mountain biking, which can impact their future traveler plans. My plans for the future is to get the described idea into life, helping MTB prosper as a kind of tourism and developing a sustainable organization which I'll work for. Nature and tradition preserving are our leading rules. Note this may be used in Changemakers' marketing material.I'm 25 years old, graduated in Cultural Sciences in Sofia University, Bulgaria. Our motivation is to spend more time in the wild nature and to use the natural resources in a way to give sustainable development to the village and to ourselves. Partnership with funding institutions will give our innovation a flying start, will minimize the risk and will provide a sustainable results. Please list: Annual budget, annual revenue generated, size of part-time, full-time and volunteer staff.It is not financed, because we have just started developing it. Please write an overview of your project. Promoting this kind of tourism is something new for Bulgaria and we expect people to be interested in it. Second, we will develop special tracks going around reserved area for rear birds, unique rock groups and places of cultural heritage interest. Tell your story.We are group of young people, thrill seekers, nature loving persons, who enjoy traveling on two wheels where people rarely walk. The accent and the uniqueness is in the fact that the whole village will be promoted as a MTB village where a mountainbiker can receive any kind of services and support. The impact of the program can meet barriers like non-popularity of mountain biking in Bulgaria, lack of foreign tourists in this particular areas, but this can be solved through good dissemination of information about the destination.What is the origin of your innovation? The impact will be measured in tourists hosted, local people involved, kilometers of MTB trails. The overall amount of mountain bikers estimates not more than 3000 people. The second thing is that 1/3 of Bulgarian territory is covered by mountains, but we have only 150 km of marked MTB trails, which is really insufficient. The third thing is that cities like the capital Sofia are rising while more and more rural areas are being abandoned by it's residents. This text will appear when people scroll over the icon for your entry on the Google map located on teh competition homepage.Mountain Bike Village in the heart of Bulgaria. Tourism on two wheels is combined with meeting local people, touching culture and traditions as well as the wild nature, beautiful views, rear birds and unique cliffs. Vasiliovo village is our place, we already have a house there and now we are starting as a non-governmental organization. Wandering for some years, we came to the idea that this particular village is a place to put our efforts on. We are all gathered around the mountain bike adventures and the wish to create a nice place for tourist offering unique services for it's visitors. We are in the process of applying for EU grants for implementing our ideas into real world, ensuring self sustainability and stable managing organization. We are now looking for funding to put our idea into real world.Please provide a personal bio. We cross Bulgarian mountains during the weekends, always looking for a way to get our hobby and professions in one peace. We have one house, if that can be shown as non financial contribution.What is your plan to expand your approach? We have one house, which can host up to 8 people and we have contacted local residents who provide accommodation, local food, fresh milk, herbs, mushrooms, transport. We have the full support of local municipality, tourist agencies and village residents. We plan to buy bigger house which can host up to 20 people in future. We want to create a unique destination which will help the local community prosper and will give popularity and tourist face to and extreme sport like mountain biking. What barriers keep your program from having greater impact?The main barrier so far is the absence of financing strength. What is the potential demand for your innovation?We are at the start line.