HELENA Beach complex in Sunny Beach was awarded a prize for best complex on the eve of this year's World Tourism Day September 27 by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Lydia Shuleva at the Plovdiv fair. The award is given by the Economy Ministry in collaboration of all the tour operator agencies in Bulgaria.

Located in the north of Sunny Beach at the Black Sea coast the resort offers services for tourists in German, Russian and English at prices per day varying from 82 leva to an apartment for 460 leva.

Located in the northern part of Sunny Beach the resort was completed in time for this summer season and has a capacity of 648 beds. A la carte, aqua bar, day bar and cocktail bar with two restaurants introduce Bulgarian gourmet seafood and traditional dishes.

The spa recreation and variety of shops in the complex makes it attractive for family tourism.

"All these facilities make the complex suitable for people's holidays without having to leave its premises," said Mladen Mutafchiiski, owner of Helena Resorts. He added that investments made in the resort exceed 30 million euro.

The complex's priorities are good service and to provide comfortable accommodation for tourists, Mutafchiiski said.

The tourism sector in Bulgaria celebrated World Tourism Day with less enthusiasm because of the lack of personnel and the ongoing controversy of double pricing for foreigners.

According to Dimitar Hadjinikolov, Deputy Minister of Economy in charge of tourism, there is a lack of five to 10 thousand people to be employed in the field of tourism for the 2005 season.

In an interview with bTV he said that the number of beds exceed the number of qualified and prepared personnel. "Bulgaria will need 10 000 trained people to service tourism next year," Hadjinikolov said adding that the ministry of economy is about to start pre-qualification of personnel and training of people involved with tourism. Students in Bulgaria are mainly taught theory and do not have the practice, he said.

"Tourism is the most humane industry because it operates with people," Hadjinikolov said and added that end of August features an increase of recreational tourists of above 18 per cent. He confirmed forecasts that receipts from the beginning of the summer season will reach up revenues of two billion dollars from tourism.

Despite being a very people oriented industry, the application of discriminatory prices for Bulgarian nationals and foreigners in Bulgaria continues. Holidaymakers from the UK told The Sofia Echo that hoteliers and private owners continue to rent rooms and apartments at discriminatory prices, more onerous for foreign nationals than locals.

"From a general point of view, it has of course to be recalled that the principle of the prohibition of any discrimination based on nationality is one of the fundamental rules of EC law," Salvatore d'Acunto, deputy head of the Antidiscrimination unit of the Council of Europe told The Sofia Echo as a response to the discriminatory practices.

He added: "it derives from Article 12 of the Treaty and more specifically, as regards free movement of services, from Articles 49 and following. The Court of Justice has confirmed this prohibition of discrimination, in respect of recipients of services for instance, in its decision in case C-388/01 concerning the discriminatory tariffs applied to tourists when visiting museums."