In the last month, Plovdiv appeared among the top 5 entrants in two separate rankings. First, the city in southern Bulgaria came in fourth in the "European Best Destinations 2022" ranking of places worth visiting. And then Plovdiv won third place in the influential European Cities and Regions of the Future (2022/2023) report of the Financial Times which looks at the potential for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI).
Challenges: infrastructure and labour market
Plovdiv is recognised as one of the cities having the best FDI strategies in the Small Cities category in the FT's report. As many as 365 cities were grouped by population size (major, large, mid-sized, small and micro cities). The report benchmarked locations for their attractiveness to foreign direct investment (FDI) and they were ranked based on data collected across five subcategories: economic potential, business friendliness, connectivity, human capital and lifestyle, and cost-effectiveness.
In recent years Plovdiv has attracted many investors and employees for new businesses. This problem, which no Bulgarian city outside Sofia has faced in recent decades, raised the question of how this rapid economic and demographic development can be financed.
Knowing that its infrastructure is one of its biggest problems, the city has a program that includes mainly infrastructure projects worth a total of 500 million levs (255 million euro). But the municipality's budget is limited, that's why Plovdiv decided to take out a 120 million levs loan from the European Investment Bank at the end of 2021.
Another problem is the shortage of staff. The rapid growth of manufacturing production in the city and its region has made it almost impossible to access trained people, which is why companies are stealing staff - a normal phenomenon among competitors that fuels wage growth.
Also, it is important for the city to attract part of the IT business community that is looking for locations outside of the capital Sofia. This is already happening - Plovdiv is the second city in Bulgaria not only in terms of population but also in terms of the number of outsourcing companies, Capital Weekly reported. This includes not only companies that write custom software (ITO) but also those that take over the business processes of other companies (BPO). According to the business portal of the municipality of Plovdiv, over 7,000 people work in this sector. Given industry trends, that number is likely to grow.
City of culture, romance and wine
Plovdiv occupied fourth spot in the "European Best Destinations" ranking for 2022 but ranked first in the subcategories Romantic destinations, Wine and Culture.
The ranking organised for the 13th time by one of the leading European tourism websites - EuropeanBestDestinations.com, features cities with a rich cultural and historical background, high quality of life and sustainability selected by travellers. More than 528,000 people took part in this year's edition of the competition, with almost half of the votes coming from tourists outside Europe.
The results surely place Plovdiv among tourist destinations able to compete with well-known giants. This is not the first time Plovdiv has won a spot in the ranking. In 2016, the city ranked third after Croatia's Zadar and Greek capital Athens, competing against extremely attractive destinations such as the Azores Islands, Paris, Barcelona, Prague and London.
"This nomination is a recognition of the efforts of local authorities and the tourism sector in establishing Plovdiv as a tourist destination. It is also an opportunity to focus the attention of the international community not only on our city but also on Bulgaria," Plovdiv mayor Zdravko Dimitrov commented.
In the last month, Plovdiv appeared among the top 5 entrants in two separate rankings. First, the city in southern Bulgaria came in fourth in the "European Best Destinations 2022" ranking of places worth visiting. And then Plovdiv won third place in the influential European Cities and Regions of the Future (2022/2023) report of the Financial Times which looks at the potential for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI).
