Bulgarian Tourism Minister: We will be Uncompromising in the Control of Beach Areas

Business » TOURISM | May 17, 2019, Friday // 20:07
Bulgaria: Bulgarian Tourism Minister: We will be Uncompromising in the Control of Beach Areas

We will be uncompromising if it is found that tenants and concessionaires on beaches do not strictly comply with the 50% free zone requirement. In case of doubt, geodetic surveys will be made on site and in case of breaches the contracts may be terminated. This was announced by Minister of Tourism Nikolina Angelkova at a working meeting with representatives of the tourism industry in Obzor, the ministry said.

About 30 contracts with beach keepers have been suspended over the last two years due to open system violations, only 480,000 levs were collected in 2018 from penalties, the minister said, and called for suspected irregularities on the beach to send signals to the e-mail address created by the agency and listed on the site.

When assessing candidates for a concessionaire, the price at which sun umbrellas and beach chairs are offered will be of great importance. The goal is to achieve the lowest possible cost for beach facilities, if it can not be determined administratively, but through market mechanisms and competition.

Mobile seas testing teams have been on the ground since January, from June 1, checks will be intense and ubiquitous. There will be also reception offices on the Black Sea coast of the Ministry of Tourism, which will help the successful running of the season.

In front of the industry in Obzor, the Minister has specified that promotion of the national resorts as congress centers is being actively pursued. The goal is to use the facilities in the months outside of the active seasons. Congress tourism is successfully combined with maritime, cultural-historical, spa and festival tourism. This will be among the main highlights of the International Conference on Sustainable Investment in Tourism, which is due at the end of May in Sunny Beach, Minister Angelkova said.

Obzor as a seaside resort makes a significant contribution to the development of tourism in Burgas region. Last year, over 9.7 million overnight stays were spent in accommodation places with at least 10 beds, which is about 3 per cent growth compared to 2017. The revenues from these overnight stays total more than 511 million leva, which is about an 8 percent increase.

Regarding the forthcoming summer season, the Minister has stated that there is at present a 1% decrease in the planned flights to Burgas Airport. I expect that in the coming months we will achieve the results of last year, as the preliminary data show that there is a very high growth in early registrations from Ukraine, France, Great Britain, the Czech Republic and Poland, the minister said. And it has been clarified that in order to attract more organized tourists from our target markets and more charter flights to the seaports and the wings of the season, an analysis is developed to show what additional measures to take.

The topic of the children's camps, with which Obzor has been known for years, has also been raised. "For the children we have to offer the best, to guarantee their health and seamless residence, as well as a quality holiday with enough sports, entertainment, festival and other cultural events," said Minister Angelkova. A special regulation on childcare camps is currently being discussed, which makes it easier to conclude contracts with Russian regions and they can directly send their children to rest in our country.

Minister Angelkova congratulated Obzor on the activity in the field of tourism and thanked for joining the upcoming initiative "The Day for You", which envisages that one day from the summer months the Black Sea municipalities will announce an entrance free for all their museums and cultural- historical sights, and so attract additional guests from home and abroad. This initiative is part of the ministry's campaign "Naturally in Bulgaria - 2019 of Domestic Tourism".

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