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Testing your tour guide
Sofia Echo Com, Marlene Smits, 29.10.2004
I think most people will agree with me if I say that Bulgaria is a beautiful country. Its mystical mountains, the sea, rough nature, cultural heritage and charming villages. However, this beauty very often is accompanied by inconvenience of some sort. Last summer I entrusted my Dutch friends into the hands of an alternative travel agent to discover the beauty of the Rhodope Mountains. A girl at this agency equipped them with a map, vouchers for the accommodation and a timetable for the busses going to this region. A guide wouldn't be necessary, she said. With the reassurance it would be no challenge for people who had made treks in the Himalayas, she waved them goodbye. To make sure that they could contact me at any time, I gave them a Bulgarian SIM card. I am happy I did, because the next day, I received a panic phone call with the news that they were lost. Apparently the signs that are supposed to guide Bulgarians and foreigners through this region, get stolen by Roma who sell them as scrap. I contacted the agency to tell them about the situation. My friends tried to work it out on their own and followed some friendly, but clueless shepherds, who somehow thought that they knew where my friends were going. Finally the agency sent the girl to go and find them, which she fortunately did. When they returned to Sofia after a week of all kinds of disasters, the agency suggested compensating them financially. In the end, I was shocked to find out that this agency was not used to dealing with individual tourists. As my colleague Christina Dimitrova described in her article on Perperikon, you don't have to be a foreigner to find yourself in troubled times during an excursion. Apparently the company that organised the tour she was on didn't think that people need food or toilet stops when travelling. And we haven't even discussed poor sanitary conditions in hotels, lack of heating in minus15 degree temperatures or whole civilisations living in your carpet or mountains of pubic hair in the drain that cause you to shower in water that rises up to your knees. But how do you make sure you don't find yourself in these situations? Fortunately, my inquiries have shown that you can test your tour operator or guide. The Economy Ministry's National Tourist Board regulates the licensing of tour operators, hotels, restaurant etc. In order to obtain such a licence, there are, among other requirements, criteria regarding education, language qualification and length of service experience. Also, the tour operator or travel agency is obliged to have certain insurances, like medical insurance. The licence will be withdrawn when the company operates together with an unlicensed tour operator, travel agent or carrier or uncategorised restaurants or hotels. But, what should you look out for? Any tourist voucher should be issued in no fewer than three copies including: number and date of issue, the licence number of the tour operator, name of the tour operator, name of the tourist, list of paid services included in the trip, contractors under the performance of the services, number and date of a document certifying payment by the consumer and a signature of the employee and seal of the issuer. If you are not sure the operator in question is indeed licensed you can look them up on the web site of the National Tourist Board. www.mi.government.bg under Tourism and then click on Licensing and Categori-sation. Unfortunately the database of tour operators and other services is only provided in Bulgarian. If you have trouble with this, you can get assistance in English by contacting the National Tourist Board directly: Radostina Ivanova, 940 78 63 or ra.ivanova@mi.government.bg If you come across any unlicensed tour operator or tourist agency you can report this with the board. If you have any specific complaint about the performance of a licensed company you can contact the Commission for Business and Protection of Consumers www.ktzp.bg , telephone 980 25 24. They are authorised to sanction the company and if necessary seek compensation for you. So when you do decide to look for leisure somewhere, keep these things in mind, because Bulgaria has legislation in place to protect your rights as a tourist. see source
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