The shortage of hotel staff on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast is in all sectors – starting with maids and ending with cooks. Attempts to import labor are difficult, processing documents takes time, the requirements are also not one and two. Some hoteliers have applied to hire foreign workers as early as January and are still waiting for workers and praying for the busy summer season to arrive.
During this summer season, some of the chefs who will work at the Bulgarian resorts will be from Turkey. Most of them have already undergone training in specialized hotel schools in our southern neighbor, and others have also gained practical experience on the Turkish Riviera.
One of the main reasons for them being able to find a job in our country is that their requirements are not much different from those of the Bulgarians. The difference is that there are almost no Bulgarians, and therefore the import of cooks is necessary.
Early bookings and the early opening of the summer season give the tourism industry hope that the year will be successful and reach the levels of 2019, i.e. the year before the pandemic caused by the coronavirus.
The range of countries from which we import staff continues to expand. Last season we imported mainly from Ukraine and Moldova, and this year Kazakhstan, Nepal, Uzbekistan and Vietnam were added to the countries in question. Low-skilled personnel are mainly recruited from these countries. However, there is a hunger for the middle and upper levels in the hotel complexes, and they can hardly be filled with the foreigners who head to Bulgaria for a living.