The Bulgarian tourism sector has began to lose its price advantage, which was one of the key factors in luring holidaymakers, a winter season survey by polling agency MBMD, commissioned by the State Tourism Agency (STA), showed.

About 16 per cent of foreign tourists said that Bulgaria was an expensive destination and more than half of them thought it was moderately expensive. Just one-third of the foreign tourists in Bulgaria’s ski resorts still believed the country was a budget destination, according to the poll. Only 2.5 percent named prices as the main reason for spending their holiday in Bulgaria.

Bulgaria was obviously losing its reputation as a low-cost destination, which meant that it was losing its competitive edge, STA chairwoman Anelia Kroushkova said.

Foreigners have spent an average of 168 euro a day in Bulgaria with a tourist package, the survey showed. This was a 15 per cent increase on the 153 euro in the previous season.

In contrast, tourists who arranged their own holidays paid 254 euro a day in the winter of 2008, compared to 121 euro in the winter of 2009. Industry experts said the decrease was caused by hotels launching price promotions due to slumping bookings and low prices offered by cash-strapped flat owners wrestling with the economic slowdown.

At the same time, the share of Bulgarians who bought packages for their winter holidays rose to 30 per cent, against six per cent for the winter of 2008.

The survey found that Bulgarian winter resorts have done little to improve on their main disadvantages, with more than 70 per cent of Bulgarians complaining of overconstruction and poor infrastructure, and almost 25 per cent unhappy with cleanliness. Taxi services were frowned upon by 14.5 per cent of foreigners, and 11.7 per cent had problems with the poor foreign language speaking skills of the staff. Tourists were also irked by slow Internet connections.

The tourism agency said that foreign tourist numbers in Bulgaria have fell by 6.5 per cent in the first two months of 2009, compared to the same period of the previous year. Revenues fell by 9.1 per cent.

Source: Dnevnik