A new study in to the likely effect of climate change on Bulgarian holiday destination has reported that it's good news for the country's summer destination resorts, bad news for the ski areas.
The study, published by the Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and Water, said that the priod from spring to summer with warmer days would be longer and drier after 2020 in the southern European nation. Winter will be shorter as a result - and warmer too.
"Ski resorts and other activities related to winter tourism will be hardest hit by the climate change, which has a direct negative impact on the local communities depending on the jobs and the revenues generated by this type of tourism," a report in a Bulgarian newspaper, Trud daily, concludes.
The report also said that there may in future by five or six bad winters for every good year.
The news, along with a report that this last winter a smaller Bulgarian resort failed to make a profit as it sent more on snowmaking than it made in ticket sales, does not seem to have dampened the appetite for ski are development in Bulgaria.
Bansko wants to expand its ski area and a whole new resort is planned in the Rila mountains.
"It will not be possible to offset the costs for expensive equipment for artificial snow using tourism revenue and even now their use discourages a substantial number of Bulgarian tourists," the report states.