Greek tour operators and travel agencies are operating in Bulgaria’s mountain resort town of Bansko without being registered under Bulgarian law, local tourist associations were reported by Bulgarian National Television (BNT) as saying.

According to the national tourist register, there were four registered foreign tourist companies licensed to operate, including two from Slovakia, one from the Czech Republic and one from Romania.

All others were working illegally, the Bansko Tourist Association alleged.

BNT said that, according to hoteliers and tour operators who do business in Bansko, at weekends the winter resort was full of Greek tourists, brought by Greek tour operators.

Guests were accommodated in apartment complexes lacking official categorisation, which is contrary to the Tourism Act.

Mariana Spassova, head of the Bansko Tourist Association, said that the operators set prices for hotel accommodation and therefore did not pay taxes in Bulgaria.

Iliana Shtereva, a member of the tourist association, said that because these places of accommodation were not registered, they were able to compete with "unfairly low prices".

According to the BNT report, the Greeks were using unlicensed interpreters, guides and mountain teachers, unlike their Bulgarian counterparts. Hoteliers said that this was killing business in Bulgaria’s informal economy.

The Association of Bulgarian Tour Operators has asked Bansko municipality to strengthen controls.

Shtereva said that they wanted to defend their rights as Bulgarian businesses and to be helped in this by the structures responsible for monitoring that the law was obeyed.

BNT quoted Bansko mayor Georgi Ikonomov as saying that the case would be investigated and whatever the law required would be done.

The Consumer Protection Commission, which also has been approached, so that it would carry out checks but said that it could not take action against those not registered under Bulgarian law.