New life of Stara Planina mountain - First hotels built within tourist complex in Jabucko Ravniste

Until few months ago, only two automobiles were passing by houses in the village of Kalna each month, while now up to 50 trucks loaded with building materials are using the road to Stara Planina mountain every day. Their final destination is one of the building sites in Serbia, situated at the height of 1,450 meters above the sea level. Works in the location of Jabucko Ravniste do not stop even when temperature drops below 15 degrees Centigrade and the thickness of snow cover reaches 10 centimeters. Reflectors are turned on at night and the workers from Deneza say that there is no such thing as winter for the real experts.

Thanks to good organization, nearly half of the future tourist complex has been built on Stara Planina in only four months. The first hotel with three accommodation sections in this complex will open its door on December 31, 2011. It will be a four-star hotel with 450 beds in 150 rooms and numerous recreational contents, including spa center and indoor swimming pool. Rooms will range in size from 25 to 40 square meters and they will represent a new product in the market because its size and contents will put it in the class of suites.

- The target group of the future hotel is young families with children and the hotel prices will be adapted to suit their budget - Slobodan Mihajlovic, the Director of Stara Planina public company, announces for eKapija.

- According to an agreement that was concluded between Stara Planina public company and HG Hoteles from Spain in late July 2010, HG Hoteles will be running the newly built hotel over the period of five years, while the investment fund Sigma Capital is going to have another three facilities built in the location of Jabucko Ravniste, which will be run by Sol Melia - says Mihajlovic.

Since the tendering process for the new four-seat ski lift and the first gondola in Serbia is finished, until hotels are built, skiers will be able to use new ski runs, ten kilometers of which will be covered by artificial snow.

Our interlocutor points out that the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development has made that investment in the tourist complex on Stara Planina in order to activate that area of nature as a generator of tourist activities of the whole region around the mountain.

- That is the first "greenfield" project in the tourism sector in Serbia. We do not only build accommodation capacities, but also develop a whole tourist destination that will offer guests interesting contents during the entire year. In addition to winter potentials of Stara Planina, we want to enrich the tourist offer with visits to monasteries, sports such as horse riding, fishing, biking and hiking, tours of lakes, etc. - Mihajlovic says for eKapija.

Special attention in the project development is paid to preservation and protection of the environment so that the state-of-the-arts solutions are applied to make it possible for the complex to fit in the natural environment.

Highway to gondola

- In the phase of concrete works, we were using up to 300 cubic meters of concrete a day. Works on underground garages are finished and they now span 8,105 square meters. We are now building wastewater treatment units and necessary infrastructure for long-distance power lines. High-voltage electricity will be supplied from Pirot. Also, we have signed an agreement on construction of internal junctions in accordance with the plan of detailed regulation, which envisages about 8 km of new road. There will be about 600 workers on the building site in spring.

Works on roads between Nis and Stara Planina are also underway and Svrljig-Kalna road is being renovated.

- There are two sections of poor quality on Stara Planina and they will soon be renovated so that the whole infrastructure will be ready for the beginning of the next ski season. Winter service is well-trained, roads are maintained on regular basis, and over 700 people are coming to ski every weekend. The capacity of ski lifts is about 3,000 skiers per hour.

Mihajlovic says that one of the advantages of the future complex in Jabucko Ravniste will be its accessibility from the highway.

- It is about 320 km away from Belgrade, 230 km of which is the highway, while a regional road leads to the exit road to its peak. Under current conditions, it takes about 3.5 hours of driving from Belgrade to reach the mountain. We also should not forget the vicinity of the airport in Nis, which is less than 70 km away, while Sofia is about 120 km away. Even now, Stara Planina is visited by people from all parts of Serbia, including Novi Sad.

As Mihajlovic stresses, the vision of the project is to connect the mountain complex in Jabucko Ravniste with Corridor 10, which passes some 30 km away from the ski center.

- The municipality of Pirot is already working on preparation of the project of a road network that will be connecting Corridor 10 with Jabucko Ravniste - says Mihajlovic.

Super Giant Slalom

Stara Planina currently has three ski lifts, that is, one lift for kids, a four-seat lift and an anchor lift, while construction of additional two ski lifts and installation of the first gondola in Serbia, leading to Babin Zub, are in the pipeline. Skiers are now using ski runs Konjarnik, Sunny Valley, and Mark's Meadow.

As it was announced earlier, once the complex in Jabucko Ravniste is completed, there will be a total of 20 kilometers of ski runs, ten of which will be covered by artificial snow.

- The aim is that new runs and lifts and existing runs be united into a single ski center that will offer all types of ski runs - from blue to black, while current ones are homologized according to FIS standards for all types of competition - on the national, international and global level. There are three types of ski runs - for slalom, giant slalom, and super giant slalom, and ski runs on Stara Planina are currently the only in Serbia to meet the standards for super giant slalom.

According to our interlocutor, Stara Planina still does not have sufficient accommodation capacities because only the holiday hostel of the EPS and the mountain lodge are open, as well as households engaged in rural tourism.

Another attraction in the vicinity of Stara Planina is Zavojsko lake, which is an artificial lake created in a natural way. Picnic grounds are only about 20 km away from Jabucko Ravniste.

People from Serbia attending training in Spain

The strategy for development of the territory of Stara Planina is based on keeping young people from that area in the region and activating local population to engage in the activities that can support the work of the future complex.

- As a foreign specialized partner, HG Hoteles will be training exclusively people from Serbia - young people who will be going to their hotels in Spain to receive training and then returning to Serbia to share their knowledge with their colleagues. This is the first hotel that will provide accommodation for all of its employees. We will actually create a brand new settlement. We also plan to animate agricultural manufacturers because our offer will include traditional southern specialties. Also, we want to engage private sector in the project development in order to maximally use the capacity of the location - says Mihajlovic.

T.S.