The Branch employees say the forecasts on Summer 2014 give them a hope. These expectations are based on the successful presentation of Bulgaria and Varna in particular at different world tourist exhibitions. Traditionally, tens of thousands of German tourists will spend their holiday along the northern segment of the sea, one can tell that by the early bookings. We can say the same for holiday-makers from Great Britain, the Scandinavian countries, Poland etc. However, the Russian and Ukrainian market faces some concerns. Local hotel owners and tour operators hope that the Crimean crisis won’t affect it in a negative manner. In 2013 Bulgaria marked a 13 percent growth of Ukrainian tourists and now local entrepreneurs are concerned not to lose these precious customers. They hope that an eventual reflux of Russians and Ukrainians will be somehow compensated for by tourists from neighboring Balkan states and more precisely from Romania.

Many foreigners are expected for the Tall Ships Regatta 2014 in Varna. The town will host the prestigious event in the period April 30 – May 3, 2014. Local administration relies on the tourist influx from the Middle East, though a bit postponed in time. It turned out these days that Varna had voiced its participation in the World Tourism Cities Federation in China with the intention to welcome Chinese tourists, who mark the biggest growth globally. Right now the municipal administration of the town works actively for prolonging the tourist season outside July and August. EUR 180,000 have been allocated from the municipal budget for that purpose, as the money will be used for an advertisement campaign abroad. The idea is to be accentuated not only on stationery vacations at the seaside, but also on opportunities for congress, spa and medical tourism in the area.

Tours around the closest cultural and historical landmarks will be organized along the northern coastline this year too. Aladja Monastery from the 12 – 13c. AD and Varna’s Archaeological Museum are the most visited ones.

Veneta Nikolova, Zhivko Stanchev for Radio Bulgaria

Varna’s Archaeological Museum  is one of the most visited historical landmarks

The statue of the so called Thracian Horseman, also known as Thracian Heros, the supreme deity of the Ancient Thracians, was presented at a news conference in Varna Monday.

The statue in question was donated to the Varna Archaeological Museum by a local businessman, Georgi Bonin, who found it in a house that he inherited from his family in the village of Brestovitsa, Plovdiv District, that he was clearing in order to sell it.

Georgi Bonin poses with the Thracian Horseman statue

The Thracian Horseman statue, which is dated to the end of 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century, was discovered in several pieces, and Bonin took it to the Varna Archaeological Museum where it has been put together and restored.

“When I found out how precious it is, I decided that the only place for this statue is in the museum,” Bonin explained Monday, as cited by BGNES.

“I strongly believe in positive examples and donations can have followers. Because people have now started to create private collections of antiques. I am convinced that the Varna Museum of Archaeology deserves to have this sculpture, and to present it in a dignified manner to its visitors from around the world,” the donor said.

The Thracian Heros statue has already been used to build a new special composition at the Varna Archaeological Museum, with an entire new hall now dedicated to Roman figurines.

“This is only the second statue of the Thracian Horseman of such size that has been found in Bulgaria,” explained Antiquity expert Alexander Minchev.

“There has been only one such statue in Bulgaria, and it is kept at the National Archaeological Institute Museum in Sofia. Varna too has its Thracian Heros now,” he said.

According to Minchev, the author of the Thracian Horseman sculpture was a talented sculptor regardless of the tighter proportions. The sculpture presents the Thracian Horseman on a galloping horse, over the figure of a bull.

“It is charged with lots of movement and emotion. I think this is the best religious work of art of this type from the period of the 2nd-3rd century,” the expert explained.