The first charters with tourists are expected to arrive on April 23 and 24 but concerns over how the Bulgarian seaside is going to welcome are being raised before their arrival. Hoteliers, tour operators and foreign tour companies are anxious about several issues.
After May 10 there will not be any access for large trucks around the Golden Sands resort. Construction works are in full swing around the Bulgarian seaside and many argue that they should cease for the summer season.
The end of May is the official date that the Golden Sands resort expects its first group of tourists. There are 22 sites presently under construction and if they are not ready by then, work will stop and they will be sealed off.
Slanchev Briag, Nessebar and St Vlas (Sveti Vlas) will temporarily terminate construction works for the 2004 summer season because they cannot be completed before the tourists arrive, Nessebur's mayor Nikolai Trifonov said in the beginning of April.
According to Mark Thomas, managing director of Jamadvice BTI, potentially building works in resorts can create huge headaches for major European tour operators like TC and TUI. They view building works as potentially being a serious issue for their clients. This includes building work in the actual hotel or resort complex, as well as in adjacent or nearby hotels and resorts. Tour operator managers receive regular reports on the extent of the work completed and then decide whether to advise clients of potential problems that building work may cause. "The operators generally try and avoid an issue over building work, informing clients of potential problems and allowing them to choose themselves, rather than trying to resolve problems after customers complain when they have arrived at the resort" Thomas told The Echo. This means advising clients beforehand of potential disturbances and letting them decide if they want to switch hotels, resorts or even countries due to building work "Such procedures in Europe are not new and were established many years ago with the wave of building works that took place in Spain, as that country was hastily developing its hotel infrastructure," he said.
Notwithstanding the problems caused, expansion of building sites is mushrooming rapidly, as revealed by increased estimates of bed numbers for this season. Rough calculations show that the Golden Sands has increased bed capacity, with an additional 5 000 beds and Varna's region has increased capacity by 7 000 beds. The Southern Sea Coast aims to increase its bed capacity to almost 9 000 beds. Total investment at the Black Sea resort, Sunny Beach, might reach some 190 million euro, with most of it going to the construction of hotels. The data provided by the Ministry of Economy about the level of new investment in tourism reveals that 800 million euro was invested in 145 hotels.
There are presently 10 new hotels being built in Golden Sands. Some of these are the Park Hotel Gordon Beach, Grand Hotel Ermitazh, the Admiral and Paradise Green Park. Among the newly constructed 20 hotels in Sunny Beach are Delta Beach, Baikal, Sun City, Fiesta Beach, Zornitsa and Sunny Day. There were only 130 hotels available in the various resort last year but the number has increased dramatically in 2004.
There are also several hotels being refurbished, under re-construction or being partly extended by building extra floors, swimming pools or extra sites in Albena, Nessebar, Ravda, Djuni and St Kinstantin and Elena.
There is a possibility that not all of the new hotels will be completed, or the works on existing ones will be completed by the beginning the tourist season, and this may force cancellations at some resort this summer. Currently, 195 hotels of all sizes are being offered for sale on the real estate market. The ones sold most quickly tend to be the family-run type of hotels that attracting both Bulgarian and foreign holidaymakers on a budget.
There are no official statistics regarding full bed capacity on the seaside but the existing trend for investing in Black Sea tourism has doubled the beds available since 2002. Tour agents comment that there are numerous opportunities for summer tourism in Bulgaria, because it's as competitive and fashionable as other European destinations. They believe that even an unexpected influx of tourists could still be accommodated given the investment that has taken place to date.
After May 10 there will not be any access for large trucks around the Golden Sands resort. Construction works are in full swing around the Bulgarian seaside and many argue that they should cease for the summer season.
The end of May is the official date that the Golden Sands resort expects its first group of tourists. There are 22 sites presently under construction and if they are not ready by then, work will stop and they will be sealed off.
Slanchev Briag, Nessebar and St Vlas (Sveti Vlas) will temporarily terminate construction works for the 2004 summer season because they cannot be completed before the tourists arrive, Nessebur's mayor Nikolai Trifonov said in the beginning of April.
According to Mark Thomas, managing director of Jamadvice BTI, potentially building works in resorts can create huge headaches for major European tour operators like TC and TUI. They view building works as potentially being a serious issue for their clients. This includes building work in the actual hotel or resort complex, as well as in adjacent or nearby hotels and resorts. Tour operator managers receive regular reports on the extent of the work completed and then decide whether to advise clients of potential problems that building work may cause. "The operators generally try and avoid an issue over building work, informing clients of potential problems and allowing them to choose themselves, rather than trying to resolve problems after customers complain when they have arrived at the resort" Thomas told The Echo. This means advising clients beforehand of potential disturbances and letting them decide if they want to switch hotels, resorts or even countries due to building work "Such procedures in Europe are not new and were established many years ago with the wave of building works that took place in Spain, as that country was hastily developing its hotel infrastructure," he said.
Notwithstanding the problems caused, expansion of building sites is mushrooming rapidly, as revealed by increased estimates of bed numbers for this season. Rough calculations show that the Golden Sands has increased bed capacity, with an additional 5 000 beds and Varna's region has increased capacity by 7 000 beds. The Southern Sea Coast aims to increase its bed capacity to almost 9 000 beds. Total investment at the Black Sea resort, Sunny Beach, might reach some 190 million euro, with most of it going to the construction of hotels. The data provided by the Ministry of Economy about the level of new investment in tourism reveals that 800 million euro was invested in 145 hotels.
There are presently 10 new hotels being built in Golden Sands. Some of these are the Park Hotel Gordon Beach, Grand Hotel Ermitazh, the Admiral and Paradise Green Park. Among the newly constructed 20 hotels in Sunny Beach are Delta Beach, Baikal, Sun City, Fiesta Beach, Zornitsa and Sunny Day. There were only 130 hotels available in the various resort last year but the number has increased dramatically in 2004.
There are also several hotels being refurbished, under re-construction or being partly extended by building extra floors, swimming pools or extra sites in Albena, Nessebar, Ravda, Djuni and St Kinstantin and Elena.
There is a possibility that not all of the new hotels will be completed, or the works on existing ones will be completed by the beginning the tourist season, and this may force cancellations at some resort this summer. Currently, 195 hotels of all sizes are being offered for sale on the real estate market. The ones sold most quickly tend to be the family-run type of hotels that attracting both Bulgarian and foreign holidaymakers on a budget.
There are no official statistics regarding full bed capacity on the seaside but the existing trend for investing in Black Sea tourism has doubled the beds available since 2002. Tour agents comment that there are numerous opportunities for summer tourism in Bulgaria, because it's as competitive and fashionable as other European destinations. They believe that even an unexpected influx of tourists could still be accommodated given the investment that has taken place to date.
