Serious difficulties in crossing the Porubnoye - Siret border crossing between Ukraine and Romania put at risk the summer trips of thousands of Ukrainian tourists to the Bulgarian Black Sea coast.
Todorka Eneva from the Association of Tour Operators and Travel Agents "Future for Tourism" - one of the largest tour operators in our country operating on the Ukrainian market - warned TravelNews about the problem.
According to her, tourists are forced to wait 10-12 hours at the border, where checks are carried out with taking biometric data, including fingerprints and photos. The crossing is the first Schengen border on the route of travelers from Ukraine, which leads to significant delays of passenger processing.
“A bus is processed in an hour and a half. Huge queues form, and people wait for hours without basic conditions“, Eneva pointed out. Among those affected are mainly mothers with children who arrive on vacation in Bulgaria for 15-20 days. According to tour operators, the conditions at the border are extremely difficult, as there are no toilets and no place to buy water.
“The situation is absurd and very serious, because these are women with children. There are not enough toilets, there is no water. People stand at the border for 12 hours“, commented Todorka Eneva.
Due to the closed airspace over Ukraine, tourists are unable to use planes and the main way to reach Bulgarian resorts remains bus transport. This makes the land route through Romania vital for the tourist flow to Bulgaria, commented Todorka Eneva.
According to representatives of the tourist The problem affects not only tourists, but also Bulgarian tour operators, hoteliers and the entire industry that relies on guests of all nationalities during the summer season.
“These are people who want to come to Bulgaria and spend their money here. Bulgarian tour operators, hotels, restaurants and local businesses profit from them“, Eneva commented.
According to her, it is necessary for institutions to react urgently. The Minister of Tourism Ilin Dimitrov has already been informed about the situation. The tourism sector is also demanding the intervention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through talks with the Romanian authorities to speed up the procedures at the border crossing.
Representatives of the industry define the current situation as absurd and warn that if the problem is not resolved quickly, this could lead to cancellation of trips and losses for Bulgarian tourism in the midst of the summer season. season.
Source: travelnews.bg