Bulgaria's Economy, Energy and Tourism Minister Traicho Traikov said on September 16 2011 that he had asked Sunny Beach AD executive director Maria Mihaleva to step down because she was also employed by Alma Tour, the company whose debt dispute with Bulgaria Air has led to hundreds of foreign tourists being stranded in recent days.

Traikov made the statement in Parliament after he was asked about Mihaleva by Penko Atanasov and Roumen Petkov, MPs for the opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party-dominated Coalition for Bulgaria.

Traikov said that Mihaleva could stay with Alma Tour.

He said that he had asked her to resign as executive director of the state-owned company because her dual role created a conflict of interest and tension in the industry that distorted the market. However, Traikov said that Mihaleva had good ideas and had done good work for the resort.

Traikov told Parliament that the number of Russian tourists visiting Bulgaria between January and July this year was 21 per cent higher than in 2010, while the number in 2010 had been 32 per cent higher than in 2009.

Bulgaria's consular offices in Moscow and St Petersburg had issued 367 048 visas, of which 16 947 were for Alma Tour clients, less than five per cent of all Russian visitors to Bulgaria.

He said that he was not so naive as to believe that the Bulgaria Air - Alma Tour issue would not affect Bulgaria's image. However, he said that there was sufficient potential to overcome any negative changes in attitudes among Russian tourists.

Traikov said that he would push for tough sanctions on the two parties to the dispute. Within a month, the results of investigations into the matter by prosecutors and economic police would be finalised.

Asked by socialist MPs about the row, Traikov said that the Economy Ministry had no legal authority to intervene in matters of inter-company debt.

On September 9, Bulgaria Air stopped transporting people who had bought their tickets through Alma Tour, saying that its refusal stemmed from the tour company failing to keep up payments on a seven million leva (3.5 million euro) debt.

Attempts by the Government to pressure the two companies to resolve the dispute have not yet yielded results. Steps taken by the Government include having provided a state aircraft to fly home some of the Russian tourists left stranded because of the dispute.