Bulgaria’s northern coastline may become empty of British tourists after two major tour operators announced they would remove all resorts to the north of Djunite from their catalogues, starting next year. The decisions of Thomson, a subsidiary of the UK TUI, and its peer, First Choice, to discontinue charter flights to northern resorts will directly affect 30 hotels that currently have contracts with the two companies.

Officials from both companies said the decisions were based on a lack of British interest in the northern coastline, higher prices compared with other resorts, and the resulting natural migration of foreign tourists further south. The Bourgas region has had much publicity in the Western media as an attractive location to buy a second home. Consequently, the region has also seen a growth in its appeal as a tourist destination.

The number of British tourists in the north will decrease by about 8000 people next summer, Bogdan Hristov, the representative of First Choice in Bulgaria, said, as quoted by Dnevnik business daily. This was the number of British holidaymakers who visited the region with the tour operator this year.

The number of tourists visiting the area on holidays organised through TUI reached 12 000 this year. Collectively, these 20 000 tourists accounted for half of the British tourists flocking to Bulgaria, according to data from the national statistical authority.

Both Hristov and Valentin Yosifov, a representative of TUI, warned that other operators were likely to follow suit because, according to reviews, the road infrastructure, amenities, recreational facilities in the southern Black Sea resorts have picked up compared to those in the north, while at the same time the southern resorts have managed to maintain more affordable pricing. The southern Black Sea resorts offer a more diverse range of services in both self-catering and all-inclusive style holidays.

The news has not gone down well with hoteliers in the north. Hotel owners have already started thinking of ways to attract tourists from other parts of Europe, such as Central and South East Europe and other Western European countries like France, to make up for the loss of British tourists, Georgi Shterev, head of the Zlatni Pyasutsi (Golden Sands) Owners’ Union, said.

This summer, the number of tour operators bringing Britains to Bulgaria has increased as both Balkan Holidays (15 000 tourists this season) and Thomas Cook (12 000 tourists) started offering holidays to the country. Last year alone, Varna Airport served 90 000 British passengers. The figure included traffic both on regular and charter flights.

Officials from the Bulgarian Tourist Chamber said tourist numbers in 2007 should continue to grow, though at a slower rate compared to previous years (three to four per cent).

With the number of tourist beds available in resorts increasing to 400 000, the trend is expected to be maintained in the months to come, as should total revenues from foreign tourists. Bulgaria is yet to reach the same level of revenue from each foreign tourist that neighbouring countries achieve, data from the Bulgarian Tourist Chamber (BTC) revealed.

Daily spending by foreigners in Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece is 46 euro, 60 euro and 80 euro, respectively, according to BTC. This summer season is projected to bring 2.2 billion euro in revenues to Bulgaria’s hoteliers.

The average holiday budget of a tourist visiting Bulgaria is 490 euro, the World Tourism Organisation said in a recent report. This compares with an average spending of 600 euro for a trip to Europe and 650 euro worldwide.