Burgas Mayor Calls on Businesses to Maximize Operations for Giro d'Italia

Burgas Mayor Dimitar Nikolov urged representatives of the city's businesses to work at maximum capacity at the beginning of May, due to the expected thousands of guests for the Giro d’Italia sports event. The cycling race will pass through Burgas between May 6 and 10.

There are 2200 participants alone, and thousands of fans are also expected. This is a unique opportunity, which comes a month and a half before the actual start of the season. For other cities, the event is only one day, but in Burgas it will actually last five days, from May 4 to 9, said the mayor during a working meeting with hoteliers, restaurateurs, and representatives of small and medium-sized businesses. The meeting was initiated by the Municipal Enterprise "Tourism".

The idea is to prepare small and medium-sized businesses, because they are usually on the front line of the event. I don't know if you remember, but a few years ago there was a concert by Arctic Monkeys at the Sea Station. After the concert, about 11,000 people went to eat. Shops, restaurants, pizzerias, everything was zeroed out. A big shock occurred. No one in the business predicted that there would be such a large wave of fans. That's why we want to warn early on that there will be consumption, there will be interest, food and drinks will be bought. The Italians are coming here to experience an emotion. They want to have a good time. We will build several stages for them, there will be concerts, stages for DJs, popular Italian music, and there will be the possibility of consumption everywhere. This is required by the organizers themselves, to build all these entertainments. The state is investing a lot of money, we will also invest funds, mainly because of the events around the competition. Of course, as a municipality, we are interested in the business earning as much as possible during these 4 to 5 days, when there will be fans, competitors and teams around them, said Nikolov.

This is a unique opportunity. A difficult season awaits us. Make sure your business takes advantage of it. Work later, don't close at 11 p.m. There will be people who will be looking for where to eat, pointed out Radoesta Stuart, director of the Municipal Enterprise "Tourism".

In Albania last year, about 35,000 people gathered for the start of the tour. No one in the country expected so many tourists to come at once and there was a real commotion. They were looking a little skeptically there, because they are not big fans of cycling. It was a shock. Everything in the establishments was consumed on the first day and there were complaints, said Mayor Dimitar Nikolov.

He stressed that Burgas Municipality is not the organizer of the event, but is actively involved because the state team that manages it is changing for the third time.

We asked them to use the experience of Albania, so as not to make the mistakes they made there, added Nikolov.

BTA recalls that the cycling tour of Italy, called Giro d’Italia, is the second-ranking race in this sport after the Tour de France. This year, its 109th edition will be held, and the first three stages of the race will be held in Bulgaria.

The start will be given in Nessebar, and the finish will traditionally be in Rome. Burgas will be part of the second stage of the race.