Bulgaria's largest tourist associations will meet Monday with officials of the Bulgarian Interior Ministry to discuss new visa waiver procedures for Russian tourists.

Last week Bulgarian tourist operators dealing with Russian tourists were informed that they could no longer submit online visa applications.

Instead, paper copies of the entire documentation are to be delivered to a visa center in Moscow run by the Indian Company VFS Services, which has increased the application processing fee from EUR 9 to EUR 12, due to the rise in its own expenses.

Representatives of the Bulgarian Association of Travel Agents (BATA), the Bulgarian Restaurant and Hotel Association (BHRA), the Bulgarian Union of Investors in Tourism, Bulgaria's Union of Balneology and Spa Tourism as well as the hotel associations of the Bulgarian summer resorts Sunny Beach and Golden Sands are said to attend Monday's meeting according to media reports.

The Bulgarian Tourism Chamber firmly opposes the changes in the requirements to issue visas to Russian citizens, made just before the beginning of the summer season.

The declaration was distributed last Friday, stating the changes will have a negative effect on Bulgaria's tourist sector, especially in the light of increased competition on the part of Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Croatia and other countries in the region.

The new requirements include a ban on online applications, increasing the application fee, a more complicated procedure with new forms and the need of 5 copies of all documents.

The new requirements have been announced verbally on April 16 to major Russian travel agents by officials from the Bulgarian Embassy in Moscow.

The Chamber is asking the Foreign Ministry to revise their intentions in the heels of the Ministry's spokesperson, Vesela Cherneva, reassuring Bulgarian tour operators on Thursday that the number of Russian visa applicants is growing despite the changes.

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