Hoteliers in Bulgaria's largest Black Sea resort of Slanchev Bryag (Sunny beach) have asked Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev and Economy Minister Petar Dimitrov to help them resolve a problem that threatens to undermine the upcoming summer season, Bulgarian news agency Focus said on April 22 2009.

Hotel owners gathered to stage a protest, demanding the Government's support in their dispute with the company that owns the resort's infrastructure, Slanchev Bryag AD.

The latter wants hoteliers to pay a fee to maintain the resort's infrastructure. Hotel owners refuse to do this, claiming that they already pay taxes for this purpose to Nessebar municipality, the resort's administrator.

The municipality, however, has no legal right to maintain the streets in the resort because they are owned by Slanchev Bryag AD, a company in which the state has a 75 per cent share. The rest is owned by private shareholders. The infrastructure was added to the company's portfolio when it was put up for privatisation. This, according to hotel owners, has led to a situation whereby the resort's streets have become privately owned, so contradicting national legislation.

Without the fee, however, the resort's management claims that it cannot maintain the infrastructure and has even turned off the street lights. With the first foreign tourists soon arriving this might jeopardise the whole season and damage all parties concerned in the conflict.

Slanchev Bryag AD has offered Nessebar municipality the opportunity to buy the infrastructure several times and has even lowered the price. However, the municipality has refused to do so, claiming that it lacked the funds.

Hotel owners want Stanishev and Dimitrov to transfer ownership to the municipality so that it can take care of it with taxes paid by hoteliers anyway.

If Stanishev decides to do this, however, the state will have to compensate private shareholders for their shares. One option is for a public tender to be called which would only replace one owner with another.

On April 22 hoteliers also asked for all repairs on the Nessebar-Ravda road to be completed as soon as possible so as not to affect traffic. They also asked that the new four-lane road connecting the resort with the airport in the nearby city of Bourgas should be completed by 2010.