Bulgaria has been highlighted as a potential destination for sexual exploiters of children, during a a seminar on responsible tourism in Bulgaria.

Mariana Asenova, the Chair of the Center for Social and Environmental Responsibility, referred to information by the international organization that coordinates the efforts of all countries in their battle against prostitution, sexual exploitation and traffic of children and under-age youngsters.

“If this sector does not take precautionary measures, our country will in future find it very difficult to deal with this imposed image, and this is part of the social responsibility of [our] business circles,” Asenova said, as reported by BTA.

She also cited data from a survey conducted with a few hotels on their application of policies for corporate social responsibility. According to the survey, which she claimed was unrepresentative, many managers stated that their hotels apply measures for energy efficiency.

The number of hotels that pay attention to the problem of generating, preserving and treating domestic waste, is very small, said Asenova. A half of hotels surveyed apply measures for saving water, but very few think of the potential for its purification and secondary usage.

Hotel owners pointed out that the reasons for this were – the high costs of introducing new technologies, and the fact that their employees were not trained to work with those innovations.

Mariana Asenova also announced that, up to now, not a single Bulgarian tourist site has received the award and label of "European flower".