Day 7
It took more than 1 hour to reach the city of Bled, which is located on the edge of the wonderful Lake Bled. https://travelslovenia.org/most-popular-tourist-attractions/
Mr. Janez Fajfar, the mayor of the city, welcomed us in front of the city government building.
Bled derives its main income from tourism. The mayor shared with us his experience on how to deal with tourism-related traffic, sports, art and cultural events, and the maintenance of city landscaping services etc.
He said that the capacity of any city or town to welcome tourists is directly related to the number of residents, and this ratio should be 1:1. The city of Bled has 8000 inhabitants and only receives up to 9000 tourists. He said that if more tourists come, it will affect the living quality of the citizens and cause discomfort.
The common problem in small towns is that young people move to big cities and causes lack of work force. Talking about the increasing number of elderly people, he said that apartments for the elderly who have lived in the city for the past 5 years and are over 65 years old are built in the city. He also said that the establishment of a new center for all generations to make the relationship between people and citizens more fruitful and closer to their local life has been proved very successful.