The Road Infrastructure Agency (RAI) expects a positive Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) from the Ministry of Environment and Water on the Black Sea Motorway project in 2025.
This was said by the chairman of the agency Yordan Valchev during the conference “International connectivity – the key to sustainable growth of Bulgarian tourism”, organized by the National Tourism Board with the institutional partnership of the Ministry of Tourism.
It is expected that the construction of the highway will begin at the end of 2026 or the beginning of 2027. The Black Sea Highway is not a panacea, because it will connect two cities – Varna and Burgas, but has no connection with the border,” he pointed out.
According to him, API plans to announce a tender for the design of a four-lane road extension from Burgas to Malko Tarnovo.
Options for doubling the route of the road from Varna to Dobrich are also being considered, Valchev said.
Despite the fact that the section of the “Black Sea” highway is short, it is key, according to engineer Zhivko Nedev, vice-chairman of the board of the Bulgarian branch chamber “Roads”. Nedev is convinced that sooner or later the Black Sea highway will be built. He recalled that the design of the “Black Sea” started in 1971, when the highway ring of the five highways that had to be built was discussed.
According to him, this highway is primarily touristic, then transport, and in recent years it has also become an ecological topic, because the designed routes pass through protected areas.
“Out of several options submitted, only one roughly meets the environmental criteria. There are protected areas between Varna and Burgas and the highway or it has to be withdrawn, but then it will not be a road that serves tourism and it will become an internal highway for the country, not for tourism, or to pass through the protected areas subject to certain measures he said.
The “Black Sea” highway is not only a need for an even better development of our Black Sea tourism, but also for the development of specialized tourism, and for welcoming more tourists from our neighboring countries, which at this stage are our main markets. This was said by the Acting Deputy Minister of Tourism, Irena Georgieva, during the conference.
Regarding connectivity, Georgieva emphasized that it is a requirement for tourists to come to Bulgaria.
She cites Eurostat data for 2023, according to which around 39% of European Union citizens’ trips to another EU country with at least one night were made by air, while around 58% of these trips were made by land. about 3% are by water transport. From this it is clear that the terrestrial one is ahead of the others.
Thus, the deputy minister directed the conversation to the Black Sea highway, which is the topic of the first panel at the conference.
According to her, with regard to marine tourism, which makes up about 70 percent of the national tourism product, it can be significantly enriched with specialized types of tourism.
“Everything we could offer in the interior of Bulgaria, a little further from the Black Sea, would be significantly more accessible if there was a Black Sea highway,” Georgieva said.
According to her, we can look at its importance not only from the point of view of the easier accessibility of the markets, on which we strongly depend on the current structure of the tourist flow to Bulgaria, but also for the development of specialized types of tourism. This coincides with the goal of the Ministry of Tourism to turn our country into a year-round destination.
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