For this summer tourist season, there has been an increase in prices in accommodation places of about 20-30% and a decrease in demand for the tourist product of 30-40% compared to last year, shared in a podcast episode of “We, the consumers“ Stoil Dalevski – owner of a hotel in the “Sunny Beach“.
“This is a historic season, since for the first time everything is in euros. There is an increase in prices of about 20-30% compared to other years. We, as hoteliers, do not want to raise the price, but we cannot hold it back if we do not, since everything has been increased by two, even three times with us. The official inflation rate is over 9%.“, he said. The hotelier agreed that the increased costs for maintaining the base, the rising cost of fuel, electricity, salaries and insurance for the staff are the determining factors. But he also admits that in addition to the economically justified factors for the increase in final prices for consumers, there are also traders who raise prices absolutely illegally, which also affects the honest business.
Stoil Dalevski defines the current summer season so far as 30-40% weaker than last year's. “I can't say whether it's because of the euro or not. For June and July, things are extremely worrying for us, as a business. Hopefully we will be able to catch up in August and September. Food products, prices of all services are extremely high and all this also affects a tourist's vacation. The exchange of the lev for the euro affects the average tourist, as it is perhaps still a little more complicated for him to calculate exactly how much he will spend on a week-long or ten-day vacation.“, he commented.
When asked whether traders in the tourism sector complied with the requirement for double price indication until yesterday, August 8, so that tourists could more easily orient themselves how much they would pay, he replied: “We have complied with it. But I am convinced that in many places - stalls, bars, shops, this has long since been abandoned. We have not had an inspection to find any violation, but we have strictly adhered to the provision - until the very end. We have not had a case so far where someone asked to pay in levs and got angry that we would not accept levs.“
The hotelier is convinced that the Bulgarian Black Sea coast is ahead of other popular summer destinations such as Greece, Turkey and Croatia. “We are a unique country, with unique nature, our service is great, our bed base is unique, our sandy strip is unique and our sea is great. So, we have no competition, we are doing excellently. Of course, there are probably colleagues who cannot do exactly as we want, but this is a small percentage. For me personally, the price-quality ratio of our Black Sea coast is the best.“, he sums up.