Hotel History
In 1969 the Burgas newspaper “Black Sea Front’’ published in its issue from October 2 the first article about the 20-storey hotel of Balkantourist. Balkantourist is the oldest Bulgarian tourist operator. It was established as a state monopoly company in 1948 and is well known in the international tourism market. Connectеd with all types of travel to and from Bulgaria. "Balkantourist" is a longtime member of reputable international professional tourism organizations like IATA, UFTAA, ASTA, JATA, ETOA, Euro Congress, as well as the Bulgarian branch organizations like BATA, Association of Hoteliers and Restaurateurs.
Nikolay Zhishev, then first secretary of the District Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party in Burgas, made the first sod of the new construction and "a powerful excavator shoveled earth with steel jaws."
The designing of the hotel began in 1964 and the working projects were completed in 1967. The original idea was to name the new hotel-restaurant, situated in the center of Burgas, opposite the building of the District Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party "Burgas". The hotel had 55 cubic meters of built-up volume and consisted of two bodies – low body of two-floors for the reception areas, and high body of 19 floors, of which 16 hotel floors, 2 installation floors and the last floor designed to house the panoramic restaurant.
In 1971 a procedure for expropriation of the properties in the neighborhoods between Alexandrovska, Bogoridi, Lermontov, Metropolitan Simeon and Osmi Mart streets began. In June 1975 was opened hotel “Burgas”, which in July 1976 was renamed to hotel “Bulgaria”.
On October 14, 1975, the correspondents of the newspaper “Zemedelsko Zname” reported that right in the center of Burgas would be raised a 21-storey hotel-restaurant "Burgas". The hotel would have 400 beds, a summer restaurant with a pastry shop, shops and souvenir stalls, a banquet hall, a conference hall, and on the top floor the people could enjoy a panoramic restaurant. The hotel would be built according to the project of "Tourist project" headed by architect Todor Kozhukharov. The executer of the project was the State Construction Administration "Total construction area" - Burgas.
In its issue 8962 of July 10, 1976, the “Black Sea Front” newspaper published information that on July 9, 1976, thousands of citizens gathered on Red Square in Burgas to attend the official opening of the largest tourist project of the season the hotel "Bulgaria". Architect Georgi Stoilov cut the ribbon and declared the hotel opening after symbolically handing over the key to the manager of the complex Kosta Chelebiev
From the entrance along the axis of the reception desk, the people entered an elegantly executed reception area. Here the architectural and artistic solutions have found the richest manifestation. Durable luxury materials were used for the construction. For example, the floors and the structural walls were made of well-known marble from Velingrad.
Since 1988, hotel Bulgaria started to be part of Tourist chain "Interhotel-Balkantourist". The chain was established upon the decision of the Council of Ministers on September 1, 1977 on the initiative of Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Lukanov in order to create large luxury hotels that will offer better service than usual offered by "Balkantourist". The company follows the model of the East Germany chain with the same name. During its existence, the “Interhotels” received great privileges, such as access to better staff and materials and even unusual for the time opportunity to import food from abroad. At the end of the 1980s, “Interhotels” had 13 hotels. Hotel Bulgaria was announced as an independent division in the system of "Interhotels" called tourist complex "Interhotel-Balkantourist" - division "Bulgaria".
