Tourism development and mass tourism: a stakeholders' perspective. The case of Bulgaria

This chapter explores the tourism development pathways in Bulgaria and the challenges the key stakeholders faced after 1990. It incorporates the contextual change in the process of restructuring and rejuvenation of the destination and offers a framework for the study of the processes taking place in turbulent, fast-changing environments marked by unprecedented political and socio-economic changes. Drawing from numerous in-depth interviews with tourism stakeholders, the chapter explores the challenges of long-term planning in Bulgaria's North Black Sea coast. The lack of strategic planning led to the transformation of the Riviera into the urbanized, high-rise 'Las Vegas of the Balkans'. This research emphasizes the role of 'mentalities' (personality traits and psychological predispositions that are resistant to change) and social networks, among other factors, that shaped the decision making of this period of time.