CEE on Bulgaria's Black Sea Coast
The Sofia Echo, 21.08.2006
An increasing proportion of holidaymakers at Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast come from Central and Eastern European countries.
This is a change from the trend of the past 10 years. Until now, most of the increasing number of foreign tourists have come from the United Kingdom and Germany.
But 2006 may be described as the year of the return of Central European tourists to Bulgaria.
During Bulgaria’s communist era, thousands of Polish and Czechoslovakian tourists used to come to Bulgaria to take advantage of low-cost holidays made available as a way for Bulgaria to compensate for its share in trade among the “comrade countries” of the then Soviet bloc.
After the fall of communism, the economic crisis in Central and Eastern Europe led to a sharp drop in visits by Polish, Czech and Slovakian tourists.
Bulgaria’s tourism sector responded by seeking to attract tourists from Western Europe, mainly from the UK, Germany and Scandinavia.
While Bulgaria hoped that the influx of Western tourists would make up for the loss in domestic income, it emerged from statistics that tourists tended to visit as part of pre-paid package tours, meaning that most of the money went to tour operators in Western countries, and the tourists spent insignificant sums in Bulgaria - mainly on souvenirs.
Responding to this trend, Bulgarian business people rushed into building hotels and holiday villages all along the Black Sea coast. This resulted in numerous hotels that had to be filled with tourists.
Although the number of British tourists increased with every year, Greek and Turkish summer resorts provided strong competition, especially in prices and the quality of service.
After the expansion of the European Union to embrace several Central European countries, economic growth in these countries prompted Bulgaria to seek to attract tourists from them.
Bulgaria has an advantage in targeting this market, because many people over 40 in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have good memories about holidays spent in Bulgaria during the communist era.
Other sentimental advantages are a sense of a shared past, and a sense of Slavic affiliation.
This made it little surprise when, on August 11, Varna mayor Kiril Yordanov said that there were currently 100 000 Czech tourists on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast.
Yordanov said that the number of Czech tourists would increase by the end of the season and would be bigger than last year. He was speaking at a meeting with outgoing Czech ambassador Petr Dokladal whose last official visit in Bulgaria before leaving office was to Varna.
A message similar to Yordanov’s came two weeks ago from Petar Zlatanov, mayor of Pomorie - 20 km north of Bourgas, who said that there was increased interest in tourism opportunities in the town among Czech, Polish and Hungarian tourists.
In November last year, the first secretary in the trade department of the Polish embassy said that Bulgaria had been continuously growing in popularity as a tourist destination among Poles. The embassy predicted that the number of Polish holidaymakers in Bulgaria would exceed 100 000 in 2006. Poles were satisfied with the ratio of quality to price offered to them in Bulgaria.
The northern neighbours are visiting too. Last week, Bulgaria’s State Agency for Tourism reported that 112 000 Romanian tourists had visited Bulgaria in the first six months of 2006. This was 76 per cent higher than the same period last year. Naturally Romanians preferred the closest summer resorts in the north. Albena summer resort alone expected 80 000 tourists from Romania by the end of the season. Bulgarian-language media reports said that restaurant and hotel staff were quickly learning Romanian language. For Romanians, Bulgaria main advantages are prices and proximity. Bulgarians welcome Romanian tourists because they are prepared to spend cash in local resorts.
A similar trend is evident with Russians. This season, National Board on Tourism data shows an increase of 15 per cent in the number of Russians visiting Bulgaria’s Black Sea. The quality of the services, the similarity of the language and relative closeness of the country is moving Russians to choose Bulgaria rather than Turkey or Greece.
As for Macedonian and Serbs, who in previous years topped the number of Central and East European tourists, their number this season has declined. One reason may be the development of the Dalmatian coast in Croatia and the economic state of the two countries.
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