Balkantourist
Sign in to savethumb|Balkantourist logo Balkantourist () is the oldest existing Bulgarian tour operator, established on 6 January 1948 as a state-owned government monopoly in what was then the People's Republic of Bulgaria. Privatised in 1995, it has continued to exist in the post-1989 conditions of market economy.
Key dates
- Inception
- 1948
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Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- business
- Country
- Bulgaria
- Headquarters
- Sofia
- Official website
- www.balkantourist.bg
via Wikidata · CC0
Article
2 sectionsContents
- References
- External links
thumb|Balkantourist logo Balkantourist () is the oldest existing Bulgarian tour operator, established on 6 January 1948 as a state-owned government monopoly in what was then the People's Republic of Bulgaria. Privatised in 1995, it has continued to exist in the post-1989 conditions of market economy.
Balkantourist was founded as a self-supporting enterprise, part of the Ministry of Railways, during the government of Georgi Dimitrov. With a starting capital of 300 million leva, its initial service was to compensate Czechoslovakia's enterprises in Bulgaria that were nationalized after the Bulgarian coup d'état of 1944 by offering holidays on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast to Czechoslovak citizens. As the war reparations imposed on Bulgaria after World War II made the country unable to compensate Czechoslovakia financially, Czechoslovak leader Klement Gottwald suggested the idea.