My first impression on arriving in Bulgaria was one of excitement and enthusiasm but was disappointed by the overt prostitution that goes on not just in the street but in the hotels of the popular beach resorts. Another annoying thing for me was being hassled by people to eat or drink in their establishments. Get rid of all the above then tourists will return. The Black Sea Coast is beautiful but is being ruined.

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Why is it so difficult then to find a good deal on a hotel on the Black Sea Coast? If you bring a value proposition on a good site, you will get your hotels filled. Not this kind of nonsense. Anyone got an idea where i can find good deals?

It is a pity that there has been such a huge drop in tourism.
The economic climate has a lot to do with it. Generally, the first thing someone asks, when looking at going away for a vacation is "how much will it cost to get there"? As there has been a drop in operators coming here and with airfares higher (from the UK) than to most other European holiday destinations, of course that is likely to cause an impact.
I'm lucky enough to live here so I don't have to get involved with aspects of [...]

Read the full comment the tourist industry that are open to criticism (I don't stay at hotels, I don't go to restaurants or bars and I rarely get to the beach) but I would imagine that the same attitude prevails that is so obvious in general day-to-day life here and that is "if I don't get as much money as possible today, I might not have any money tomorrow", blithely unaware that good service, a good attitude, fair prices and good quality will inevitably reward more in the future.
USA visitor –“how is it that only foreigners can own modern flats and most importantly residential homes and not simple BULGARIANS citizens!” You are incorrect. Home ownership (apartments and house) by citizens in Bulgaria is extremely high. Not only that, many Bulgarians own more than one property. Of nearly forty families that I have come in close contact with, since living here, I know of only one that doesn't own a property. However, they are living rent free in what used to be their own property, having sold it to an absentee foreign owner. They are waiting until coastal properties drop sufficiently for them to purchase two, from the proceeds of their village house, in the same block so they can live in one and rent out the other.

USA visitor, you are correct about the opportunities in the USA.

We have visited and love it there,it is a land where anything is possible especially for the young and ambitious.

Sadly the opportunities are not as equally balanced here in Bulgaria,
this beautiful country is slowly self destructing due to greed and mismanagement.

We were in Pamporovo in February and the prices were absolutely scandalous. It was a good job the bar staff had a Parrot to talk to as many of the guests abstained [...]

Read the full comment after the first night.

how is it that only foreigners can own modern flats and most importantly residential homes and not simple BULGARIANS citizens! This shows how corrupt the bulgarian country officials are; the people and state tourism agency is. There must be a balance in economics! A normal decent life should be a main objective for a every citizen. And raising price is not going to help. Just with 300 million people the USA "CITIZENS" fights aggresively towards inflation compared to the euro-zones near 500 million! The USA is one of the top best countries to live and work. period! Plus it has [...]

Read the full comment alot of land. And with the current administration in the white house over the course of 8 years the world can expect more immigration allowance to america!

But a government and citizens cannot inject ideaology and economics in a few years in what took USA a few hundred years! USA did not create itself for monetary reasons but the country was founded on democracy and hope for where dreams can come true regardless of your cultural background. And these are some of the distinctions that significantly seperates BG in the balkans and also from the rest of the "euro-zones" and not europe(politically)! A constitution cannot and should not be created just to create a stronger unified currency! This will lead ulitmately to chaos and destabilization of monetary policies in the euro-zones. The irish is correct to withhold from signing the lisbon treaty and likewise, hungary and poland.

indeed; Bulgarian gov;t officials are very confused, thus the citizens are even more confused. Forget BG, there other places like croatia, Bosnia, and now Montenegro and even Romania and Ukraine! We wish bulgaria has another crash but in this case where the young ones will remember how devastating it will be! The previous generations did little to explain what caused market and leva crash in Bulgaria. Inflation is more dangerous than a recession/deflation.

You think things are bad now, it hasn't even started yet. In a very nice housing estate close to where I live a four bedroomed house was valued at £295,000 last year.It was sold at auction 3 months ago for £168,000. In Sofia and Plovdiv there are people living in negative equity. The solution is simple either bring your prices down or shut down for at least two years.

I agree with all of yous opinions.
PR firms, and all else is much needed to help the Bulgarians to compete with the rest of the world.

Cheers

People are not going to visit
Bulgaria if they can go to France,
Austria or even Mexico for the same money. Turkey is the cheapest
destination, and Bulgaria should be pitching prices around this kind of level - ish.
But you can rent an apartment, villa or chalet quite cheaply direct from the owners on the holiday lettings and holiday rentals sites. Most owners wish
they had never purchased and are
disappointed with the slow lettings
market. Wildly extravagant claims
were made concerning rental [...]

Read the full comment occupancy when these places were being sold.And the lack of infrastructure/things to do does not help.
Bulgaria does very little to help itself.Marketing and service provision are poor. Tourists and property investors are seen as cash cows.
Planners should not approve properties that are likely to bliht the landscape or result in much oversupply. But, if plans were approved correctly, the investors should not have to suffer
losses - otherwise construction in Bulgaria will be finished - resulting in massive job losses.
Bulgaria has been blessed by nature
but sadly the Bulgarians do not seem to make the best of it. As
always it does not seem to be the
ordinary people who are most at fault.

We were in Sozopol recently and were really impressed with the apartment we rented 40 Leva a night. We tried a few hotels first but were not impressed with the facilities or the attitude for the ridiculous prices they were trying to charge. The owners were really happy when a booked the other vacant rooms for friends. We are going back in September and have provisionally booked the whole block. When hotels in major cities around the world are cutting their prices whilst not dropping standards why oh why doesnt the Bulgarian tourist board get their heads out of the [...]

Read the full comment sand and do the same.

I have to say that Bulgaria is failing to appreciate that in order to attract tourists they have to try and improve the quality of the services they offer. Too much of what they provide in the way on new accomodation is sub standard compared to the rest of Eorope but prices for hotel meals are too expensive and in regions like Bansko the taxi firms are pricing themselves out of the market as are the firms that supply meals on the ski slopes.To charge as much as they do in France and Austria is not the way to attract [...]

Read the full comment people to visit Bulgaria.The Country has to realise that they have to make prices attractive to want to vist and the type of food served needs to suits the europens tastes and offer more variety. You have a lovely country but you have to improve standards.

need to build more then, thats the obvious money laundering plan. need to fill the fill the country with 'em. so much space to fill.

A good lesson for those who overbuilt the Black Sea coast. I hope the new government will not permit half-built hotels as the one on the pix to stay there. They should destroy all hotels that are not finished in 3 years and these that don't operate for the same period of time and plant the forests again on the place they distroyed them.

Probably longer than it will take you to punctuate correctly.LOL:D

When we find a decent hotel with good service good food clean hotel rooms we will return. I wonder how long it will take.