Bulgaria is the best value-for-money summer holiday destinations for UK citizens, according to this year’s Best Value Breaks survey by Teletext Holidays and reported by the British newspaper The Sun. The country ranks highly because of cheap flights and accommodation. Morocco was the second best destination.

The beer is cheap and you will spend less money in Bulgaria than in Spain, the newspaper said. Food is also cheap. The quality of hotel offers, the climate and the beautiful scenery are the other main factors that put Bulgaria at the top of the rankings, according to the paper.

The publication compared prices in Bulgarian resorts to their counterparts in other countries, thus trying to convince tourists of the benefits of holidaying in Bulgaria. Nonetheless, given the current situation in Bulgarian coastal resorts, the ranking sounds more like an advertising campaign. Recent reports about the prices in Bulgarian summer prices catching up with those in European prime locations are not an exaggeration. A growing number of Bulgarians are shunning local holiday villages in favour of foreign destinations; admitting that a holiday package abroad has recently emerged as a cheaper alternative. Also, Bulgarian resorts are increasingly considered over-constructed, noisy and do not have excellent customer service – these are the most common complaints, according to the State Agency for Tourism’s (SAT) report on the 2007 summer holiday season.

Prices in Bulgaria’s winter resorts are also similar with those in the Alps and other popular European mountain locations, as a simple comparison of the price of a daily pass shows.

Although, the number of British visitors to Bulgaria is still significant, their interest in the country has recently plummeted. SAT’s surveys, which are carried out on a regular basis, have registered the decrease. It is too early to say, though, whether it is just a temporary fluctuation or a more long-term trend.