New law on tourism expected in Bulgaria

A new law on tourism is expected to be drafted by the end of November, Mario al-Djebouri, head of the State Agency for Tourism (SAT) announced on October 20.

The proposed bill aims to regulate hostels and apartment complexes and information centres. Its scope will include animators, tour guides, ski instructors and mountain guides. The law is expected to create more opportunities for public-private partnerships in Bulgaria’s tourism sector.

The SAT is also seeking changes to a controversial ordinance on the star-rating of tourist facilities that threatened to downgrade some of the evaluations of Bulgaria’s major hotels. These changes, which will apply only to hotels built before November 30 2004, will allow existing five-star hotels to avoid a downgrade.

The changes were prompted by criticism from Sofia’s upscale hotels, many of which are part of international chains like Hilton, Kempinski and Sheraton. The Sofia Hilton even took court action to preserve its rating.

Under the changes, municipalities will have the authority to assign one or two-star ratings to tourist facilities. SAT officials will have to inspect facilities seeking a higher rating. The changes to the ordinance will also introduce the new category “business hotel”.

Promoting tourism in Bulgaria was also on SAT’s agenda last week.

On October 23, al-Djebouri said a substantial portion of SAT’s budget will be allocated for market research. That will help municipalities and businesses prepare projects for funding under upcoming EU programmes. The budget of the SAT for 2007 is more than six million leva.

As for the results of its efforts, SAT unveiled promising numbers.

Foreign tourists visiting Bulgaria in the first nine months of 2006 rose by 5.39 per cent on the year to nearly 4.3 million people, announced Kremena Nedyalkova, head of SAT’s tourism policy department, on October 20.

Revenue from tourism activities for the first eight months of the year came to almost 1.6 billion euro, up by 5.45 per cent on the year, Nedyalkova said. The data was provided by Bulgarian National Bank.

The number of foreign tourists who stayed in Bulgaria in the peak season - May to September - was 7.2 per cent higher than the same period last year. The increase equalled three million people.

In 2005, a total of 4.84 million foreign tourists visited Bulgaria, resulting in almost two billion euro of revenue.

Earlier the same week, Government officials expressed hopes for a rise in tourism revenue of as much as 10 per cent this year. Reports in local Bulgarian-language media, however, suggested a fall in revenue due to underdeveloped infrastructure, unrestrained hotel construction activity in some of the country's biggest seaside and mountain resorts and a shortage of skilled workforce.

Tourism contributes about 12 per cent of Bulgaria’s gross domestic product and helps the country partly offset its rising trade deficit.


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