A group of about 200 Finnish tourists left Bulgaria late on September 12, the latest to be ferried out after having been stranded for days because of the debt dispute between Bulgaria Air and Alma Tour.

However, some foreign nationals were still stranded, with Bulgarian media reports giving varying numbers, from 60 to 150.

The Finnish tourists left on a Finnish low-cost airline, on a flight organised by the Finnish consumer protection agency, according to a September 13 report by Bulgarian television station bTV.

Earlier the same day, according to BTV, the agency banned the company from offering trips to Finns unless it could prove that it had the finances to ensure that the flights went ahead.

The saga started on September 9 when Bulgaria Air, alleging that Alma Tour was failing to keep up payments on arrears debt said to amount to seven million leva (about 3.5 million euro), refused to honour tickets arranged through the tour company.

Negotiations between the airline, Bulgaria's national flag carrier - albeit privately-owned, and the tour company, failed. On September 10, acting on the orders of Prime Minister Boiko Borissov, Government ministries intervened to attempt to facilitate a resolution to the dispute and to help out the stranded tourists, including with a flight home on a state aircraft.

Bulgarian hoteliers also stepped in to provide accommodation and food to the marooned tourists, most of whom are from Russia, currently the leading source of tourists visiting Bulgaria.

On September 13, Bulgaria's Prosecutor-General Boris Velchev told journalists that the matter was being investigated by the Economic Police,  but no pre-trial proceedings had been initiated.

Velchev said that the episode had seriously impaired Bulgaria's reputation. "Now it is not only about the relations between the two companies but also about the reputation of a country".

BTV said on September 12 that Bulgaria's tourism industry believed that the crisis around the stranding of hundreds of foreign tourists would negatively affect the name of Bulgaria as a tourist destination.

But the authorities believed that the scandal would blow over quickly, bTV said.

"This is an unpleasant incident, but in view of the efforts by hoteliers, the negative impact will go away before the start of the winter season and will have a minimal impact," Ivo Marinov, the Deputy Economy Minister in charge of tourism, was quoted as saying.