The resort of Albena, on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast, is preparing for a difficult summer season in 2009. In light of the economic crisis, the company forecast a sharp decline of foreign tourists this year, website investor.bg reported.

To minimise losses, Albena plans to cut expenses and optimise management, but the company gave no financial targets for 2009, investor.bg reported.

In 2008, Albena's profit fell 21.7 per cent to 13.9 million leva, even though its revenue rose by 2.2 per cent to 96.3 million leva, according to the company's annual report. In 2008, Albena had 209 000 tourists, three per cent down from 2007.

Its net debt rose by 32 million leva, reaching 135.5 million leva at the end of 2008. More than half of that figure, 65.3 million leva, has to be repaid in the next five years.

The revenue generated from British tourists has declined sharply, from 3.85 million leva down to 1.04 million, a slump of 74 per cent.  Revenue generated by German tourists has also declined by 22 per cent to 11.7 million leva, while revenue from Scandinavian tourists fell by five percent, down to 6.64 million leva,

The 74 per cent increase in revenue from Romanian tourists, reaching a total of 13.4 million, along with the 24 per cent increase in revenue from Russian tourists to 16.2 million leva, offset the losses from the other traditional markets Albena relies on.

Over the past 12 months, Albena's capitalisation lost 45.4 per cent to 65.4 million leva as of March 30 2009.