Member of:
Language:
No booking fees!
FREE cancellation in most cases!
Foreign tour operators flee Bulgaria's sea resorts
Dnevnik Daily, 11.05.2005
Construction sprawl and bed overcapacity has cooled the enthusiasm of travel industry powerhouses Thomas Cook, TUI and ITS to finance new hotels in Bulgaria's major sea resorts. The big tour operators now consider joining new developments in resorts like Slanchev Bryag and Zlatni Pyasatsi dicey and prefer to funnel their cash to smaller-scale holiday communities further south along the shoreline. The Big Three have forked out only 15 mln euro for the new summer season, well off last year's 44 mln euro investment figure. The investment made available by the tour operators is used to improve hotel amenities and reconstruct existing facilities. Under one of the financing scheme, the travel companies prepay the packages they will sell thus providing the hoteliers with working capital. The tour operators could also directly fund the construction of new hotels, accepting as repayment the tourist services provided by the hotel owners over a 3- to 5-year period. Thomas Cook will spend only 6 mln euro this summer versus the record 23 mln euro that the company invested in Bulgaria's sea resorts last year. ITS has earmarked only 2 mln euro for summer '05, a threefold decrease from last year's spending, as the company shifts focus towards Bulgaria's Southern Black Sea coast and tries to give a better marketing push to its locally represented international hotels chains Calimera, LTI, PrimaSol and Sunshine Club. TUI's bet on investment in Bulgaria's Southern Black Sea coast is backed up by company data showing that the number of tourists in the area will be rising by 10-15% annually versus 5% for the Northern section of the shoreline. TUI's Robinson and Magic Life club hotel chains are scouting for opportunities to invest in up-scale holiday villages along Bulgaria's Southern Black Sea coast in a bid to attract cash-rich tourists. TUI has downsized investment from 15 mln euro in 2003 to 10 mln euro this year and will start building its own accommodations facilities here. Currently on the drawing board are two 1,000 bed developments, one in Obzor and one further south. The British tour operators, who have recently been muscling in on the Bulgarian tourist market, are also starting to invest in local hotels. First Choice plans to increase substantially local investment, said Bogdan Hristov, the local representative of the British company. see source
Touroperator
