Tour operators demand fair distribution in the lists for boarding evacuation planes.
This is stated in a letter from the Association of Tour Operators and Travel Agents "Future for Tourism Association" (OBT), which was sent to the Minister of Tourism Irena Georgieva and to the Director of the Situation Center at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Irena Dimitrova, which TravelNews has at its disposal.
The letter from the Administrative Director of the MBT Svetlana Vatashka states:
Within the deadline announced by the Crisis Headquarters of the Ministry of Tourism, I have submitted the data requested by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for 534 Bulgarian citizens who, through ten tour operators, are staying in Dubai as individual tourists or with groups.
By the time I write this letter, only eight of them - a small group from one tour operator - are at the airport and are awaiting their return to Bulgaria. I open the parenthesis to emphasize that this happened after my call to the Situation Center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs this morning that two of the children have an escalating medical problem, for which I thank you.
Excluding the aforementioned case, so far not a single tourist staying in Dubai through a tour operator has been contacted by an employee of the Consulate General of the Republic of Bulgaria and has not been provided with support. Our guides there inform us that priority is given to politicians, businessmen and their relatives and close and self-organized individual tourists. And more – that the evacuation of Bulgarian citizens must take place within a 3-day period, the first of which has already passed.
We are inclined to believe them, because the messages of the crisis headquarters so far are that tour operators should do everything possible to reroute their clients' plane tickets and not rely on help from the state, that is, to save themselves individually as they see fit.
However, two problems arise here, the first of which is that in the Galileo and Amadeus reservation systems the flights are available, but are not being operated, due to the sporadic opening and closing of the
airports in Dubai, the opening of an air corridor, the provision of a slot, etc. The second is that the prices of plane tickets have hit the ceiling.
I am in constant contact with our members and most of them are in a stupor that the implementation of Art. 89 and 90 of the Law on And it does not correspond to that of the diplomatic mission on the ground.
The lack of the right messages leads to insinuations, confusion and panic - a state in which a large part of our clients find themselves, and not least - to a loss of trust in the tour operator. This, the absence of an evacuation schedule and the recommendation from the consulate in Dubai that everyone should save themselves individually, forced a large part of our tourists to register in the MFA's I TRAVEL FOR application, hence the unacceptable duplication of names.
In continuation of everything stated so far, we insist on:
1. Coordination of the activities of the crisis headquarters of the two departments - on the one hand, with the
statements and actions of diplomats in Dubai.
2. Continuous and permanent contact with the MBT
3. Refinement of the MBT list, submitted to the Ministry of Transport at 11 am on March 3
4. Transparent and honest principle of arranging the evacuation lists
5. An accurate and feasible evacuation schedule with which to familiarize our clients.
We count on our clients and ourselves to feel the care and empathy of the state that you represent, indicated the MBT.
Miroslav Ivanov
Source: travelnews.bg