Bulgarian hotel owners and travel operators have always yearned for a longer summer season. This year, they will be happy if they have a season, full stop. Most hotels will not see full occupancy rates outside July and August, compared to the three-four month season they enjoyed in previous years.

The global economic downturn has hit the tourism industry hard and has been felt in Bulgaria. Seaside resorts have registered a double-digits slump in early bookings and in some cases the drop is as high as 50 per cent. Travel operators have delayed charter flights and even though planes are landing at Black Sea airports, activity is not expected to pick up until well into June. As a consequence, hotel owners have been forced to lower their rates for travel companies to amounts that would have been dismissed several years ago.

Fewer tourist numbers have put pressure not only on the hotel industry, but all businesses that depend on it – restaurants, pubs, suppliers and beach concessionaires. There is a critical minimum occupancy rate required for hotels to break even, prompting some hotels to stay closed for business until custom picks up in June. Others, provided they can afford it, are even considering not opening for business this summer at all.

Late reservations
"When at the end of last summer hotels were negotiating prices for this year, some of them asked for increases of five to seven per cent. At the time, no one could forecast the harsh impact of the global credit crunch and few people were prepared for what was in store," said Elena Ivanova, from the union of hotel owners in Slunchev Briag (Sunny Beach) resort.

At the turn of the year, the negative trends became clear – Western European and Russian tourists, who make up the bulk of the foreign influx on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, have become more financially conscious and reluctant to spend on holidays. Worse yet, they are clearly holding out until the last moment to choose the cheapest offer in the region. Greece and Turkey have thus become direct competitors to Bulgaria, offering very attractive package deals supplemented by aggressive advertising campaigns.

Reaction in Bulgarian followed swiftly. Hotel owners offered larger discounts for early bookings – instead of the traditional 10-15 per cent range, hotels will slash as much as 20 per cent off – but also extended the deadlines for early bookings until the end of April and then until the end of May. One hotel went even further, allowing early bookings for July and August until mid-June.

"These are no longer concessions, but real reductions in prices," one travel company representative said.

Lazko Zhardanov, manager of the Luna hotel in Zlatni Pyassutsi (Golden Sands) resort said: "Usually early booking discounts are valid until end-March, but this year it is the end of May. There is a definite feeling that the season will start a lot later." The number of overnight stays in the hotel is expected to fall to 3000 for the month of May, compared to 6000-7000 in previous years, he said.

The efforts to draw foreign and Bulgarian tourists have yielded little in the way of results. Interest in all key markets is down, judging by preliminary figures concerning charter flights announced so far. Varna and Bourgas airports expect a decline of 15 per cent this year, but numbers can change in either direction at any time as travel companies are forced to adjust on the go, based on incoming bookings.

The six-day public holiday at the beginning of May was far from a big boost. In Sunny Beach, only 10 per cent of hotels opened for business and had about 30 per cent occupancy rates, Ivanova said. In previous years, one in three hotels would have been open and half-full, she said. In Golden Sands, most hotels opened for the May holidays, but they were banking mainly on Romanian tourists.