Bulgarian blue-chip resort operator Albena plans to invest some 40 million levs ($30.3 million/20.4 million euro) in its hotels this year, the company's executive director said on Friday.
The money will be spent on the completion of Albena's Flamingo hotel and the upgrade of several other hotels on the Black Sea coast, Krasimir Stanev, told SeeNews.
Albena will invest 25 million levs on upgrades and building a hotel featuring spa services in 2009, Stanev said.
The new hotel should be completed in 2010, he added. Stanev said the company would aim to attract more Russian tourists as clients, hoping for a 10% increase in their number in 2008 following the warming up of ties between the two countries in the past months.
During a visit to Sofia by Russian President Vladimir Putin in January the two countries signed an agreement to set up a 50/50 joint company that would build and manage the Bulgarian section of the multi-billion euro South Stream pipeline designed to carry Russian natural gas to western Europe via Bulgaria.
Albena, on the northern Black Sea coast, is one of the major seaside resorts in Bulgaria alongside Zlatni Pyasatsi (Golden sands) and Slanchev Bryag (Sunny Beach).
Its shares, part of the SOFIX index of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, closed 0.3% lower at 95 levs as only 10 stocks changed hands.

by SeeNews