Bulgarian Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski, photo by BGNES
Bulgarian Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski is meeting tourism industry representatives to discuss the chaos caused by the restructuring in the state body governing the sector.
The meeting was organized after a series of letters to the Prime Minister in which branch organizations decried the uncertainty about the person and the state body that would be put in charge of the sector, according to reports of Dnevnik daily.
At the beginning of the term in office of Bulgaria's current government it was announced that the tourism portfolio would be spun off from the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism (MIET).
In the autumn of 2012, the tourism officials of MIET moved their offices to the southern Bulgarian city of Plovdiv and only the staff handling record keeping in the sector remained in Sofia.
An owner of a tourism agency speaking on condition of anonymity told dnevnik.bg that the people working in the sector no longer knew who to turn to as the Sofia-based employees referred them to the Plovdiv-based unit and the entire tourism administration, which had previously been headed by the Deputy Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism, lacked a director due to the unresolved administrative status.
The meeting at the Council of Ministers is attended by Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski, Daniela Bobeva, Deputy Prime Minister in charge of economic development, Dragomir Stoynev, Minister of Economy and Energy, Aneliya Genova, head of the "Marketing, Promotion and Information in Tourism" Directorate of the Ministry of Economy and Energy, and the head of the Tourism Policy Directorate.
Later on Thursday, Oresharski is to meet with representatives of the Made in Bulgaria union.
According to Capital Daily, the tourism sector faces an administrative roadblock at the peak of the summer season because the two key committees in charge of hotel classification and tour operator permits stopped functioning about a month ago.
Before the socialist-led government of Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski assumed office, the two committees were chaired by Ivo Marinov, Deputy Minister of Economy, Energy and Tourism.
Economy and Energy Ministry officials explained the delay of work of the two committees with the ongoing restructuring of the administrative bodies in charge of tourism.