Hoteliers and restaurateurs on the Southern Black Sea Coast define the current tourist season as “difficult”. Some of them report a drop in occupancy by about 30% compared to the same period last year.
A difficult start to the summer tourist season in our country. This is how hoteliers delicately describe the beginning of the season on the Southern Black Sea Coast, which has seen a significant decline. "30%, and maybe even more", notes Plamen Kopchev, chairman of the Union of Owners in Sunny Beach, to NOVA.
The situation is similar in the establishments in the resort. "Between 35 and 40% client outflow. "The turnover has fallen, which is quite normal," says Desi Nikolcheva, who owns a restaurant.
Both hoteliers and restaurant owners are adamant that the reason for the low number of guests is not the World Cup. "No, I wouldn't say so. This is not something that is happening for the first time and it is not some event that has not happened before, so to speak, that it is reflected in some way", believes hotelier Teodor Pastarmadzhiev.
Moreover, before the start of the season, all potential foreign guests were informed about the opportunities to watch football. "That they will have access to television, to screens that are installed in different rooms, and they will be able to watch all the matches", explains Plamen Kopchev.
The first signs of a difficult season were noticed by the industry at the beginning of the crisis in the Middle East, when fuel prices soared. "From there we received many cancellations on the English market, on the Central European market. In order to get a cheaper package, guests switch from all-inclusive to half-board", says Kopchev.
Many of them also shortened their stay in our country, although prices in our country have not increased dramatically. "The colleagues themselves raised the prices minimally. For this inflation that exists, we have not raised anything drastically that would affect the decline in the number of tourists", he is categorical.
The industry reports that in addition to the economic crisis in Europe as a whole, a number of unresolved problems in our country are also having an impact on the season.
According to hotelier Teodor Pastarmadzhiev, we have a problem with the image of the destination. "This image has been quite badly damaged in recent years, sometimes for good reason, sometimes not, before our European external partners. We never managed to recover after the COVID-pandemic," he commented.
The industry also reports the negative campaign against domestic tourism, which is being waged on social networks. "Now we see the prices on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. There are places where it is extremely expensive, but there are extremely affordable places. And I think they should be promoted. In Sunny Beach, you can take a walk, see that there are places where, for example, the lunch menu is 4 euros, a completely affordable, normal environment," says Desi Nikolcheva.
Despite the difficult start, hoteliers and restaurateurs hope that in July and August they will make up for the losses from June, and they will make up for it after the season. But they agree that help from the state is needed, but not in direct financing, but in advertising and policies.