Between the rock and the hard place, there is the object that is being hit. In this situation, the object is the State Agency for Tourism, and the two stressors are the controversy over the star-rating system used for hotels, and the cancelling – or, technically, postponing – of a round-table discussion on the problems of congress tourism in Bulgaria, one day before the event was scheduled to occur.

The star-rating controversy came to light in early October, when the State Agency for Tourism announced that certain five-star hotels in the country’s capital Sofia – namely the Hilton, the Sheraton and the Kempinski Hotel Zografski – faced the possibility of losing their top state-accredited ratings.

In late 2004, the agency introduced stricter rating standards that somehow differed from those used internationally. One of the effects of this is that establishments that previously had been rated might not fulfil the new requirements.

The Hilton, in fact, has recently had two of its stars extinguished, making it fall to three, from five. As a result, the Hilton has chosen to take court action. When The Sofia Echo contacted the Hilton on October 17, the hotel’s executive office was unable to comment, as the process was still in court. The Kempinski, also, in awaiting an official decision from the agency, was unable to comment.

Attempts by The Sofia Echo to contact the State Agency for Tourism had also yielded no information by press time.

Coupling this is the agency’s last-minute cancellation of an October 17 round-table discussion on problems in congress tourism, organised by the State Agency for Tourism. The theme of the not-occuring working lunch discussion had been proposed by the Bulgarian Organisation for Congress Tourism (BOKT). According to the letter signed by agency head Mario al-Djebouri announcing the cancellation, or postponement, the reason for the change was that the agency did not want to deal with the cacophony of opinions or get involved in the legitimisation of possibly non-legal set-ups in which the BOKT is allegedly involved.

In an open letter to the media, BOKT director Poli Karastoyanova said that “absurdly and unexplicably in the SAT letter to the media, it is suggested that business alone has created its own ‘insignificant problems’ and ‘doesn’t have the power to resolve them’. ... The truth is that the big problem with the State Agency for Tourism and its president is the impossibility to talk seriously, deeply and with a vision of the future of Bulgarian business”. She continued by writing that the great professional experience of BOKT members would allow the organisation to raise public awareness of the necessity for the development of congress tourism and the importance of such tourism, “despite the obvious non-understanding of the SAT”.

Given al-Djebouri’s non-attendance, wrote Karastoyanova, BOKT had invited Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov to the working lunch, with the suggestion to transform Sofia into a regional congress centre.

In December this year, Bulgaria will host a conference on problems in tourism, under the management of the European Commissioner for Tourism. In April 2007, at the initiative of numerous Central European countries, Bulgaria will host an international forum on problems in spa tourism. This is to be followed by Bulgaria’s hosting of the communications forum Telekom 2007.

Meanwhile, on October 13, the State Agency for Tourism received a crystal globe award at the international travel fair Ukraine 2006 for promoting Bulgaria as an attractive destination.