The Bulgarian International Tourism in Late Socialism – between the Class-party Ideology and the Economic Interest

Abstract

After the 1960s the international tourism was developed as an important economic branch of Eastern European countries and space where the economic interests, ideol-ogy, consumption, and social policies were entangled. In this study, I will undertake a historic-anthropological analysis of international tourism in Bulgaria in the time of late socialism, which is based on a case study of Borovetz, the biggest Bulgarian mountain resort during socialism. The research question addressed are: how the re-gime was trying to establish legitimacy through tourism – among Bulgarian citizens and internationally, which is the role of the ideological confrontation with the West in the period of the Cold War and which are the leading strategies in the management and the work culture in the branch of international tourism at that time.