People in the Bulgarian tourist industry are divided on whether most Bulgarians spent the May special holiday in neighbouring countries or stayed at home.
One set of figures says that two-thirds of Bulgarians headed for Greece and Turkey, while the rival set claims the opposite.
It should not be too difficult for officialdom and the tourist industry to work out the true picture, by using the number of Bulgarian vehicles that crossed the border, allowing for the number of people who travelled by air, and then dividing this figure over the estimated total population.
Either way, from media reports about border crossings and traffic levels it was clear that a large number of Bulgarians chose to leave the country for their six-day holiday.
Those who claim that most Bulgarians chose to spend the holiday elsewhere blame this on a perceived failure to the domestic market to advertise itself to Bulgarians. Leaving aside the question of whether it was a majority or minority who voted with their feet when it came to tourist destination options, there would be a number of reasons for which people would holiday elsewhere.
First, European Union membership and a permissive visa system with Turkey have made it easier for Bulgarians to travel to Greece and Turkey. Both of these latter countries, on top of their extensive experience and expertise in developing their tourist markets to attract visitors from throughout the globe, have stepped up their advertising in the Bulgarian market. Further, both of these countries offer a wide range of options in travel and accommodation. Add to this the credit growth picture in Bulgaria, which in the short term makes borrowers literally more mobile, and there are strong incentives for Bulgarians to travel to neighbouring countries for holidays.
A separate survey unveiled a few weeks ago by Bulgaria’s State Agency for Tourism adds to the picture. Much to the astonishment of seasoned observers of this country’s tourism industry in recent years, the survey claimed to have found that a large majority of foreign tourists wanted to return to Bulgaria – while the survey also found that foreigners wanted to see various improvements, including “more hospitable” tourist industry employees. In what should come as no surprise to anyone who has put the slightest thought into the matter, the survey also established that Bulgarians were not entirely undiscriminating – meaning, and this should really be no revelation, that Bulgarians do not want to accept rude and offhand service, inadequate infrastructure, and unreasonable prices either.
This summer season will be decisive in producing evidence of changing trends in the Bulgarian tourist market. If the pattern of last year continues, the number of visitors from the UK and Ireland will decline while the number of tourists from Russia and Romania will increase. Astonishingly, some opinions have been expressed about what kind of new hotels Bulgaria should be building, one suggestion being three-star hotels in good locations, but it would seem much more advisable to call an immediate halt to building and re-orientate the use of the stock that Bulgaria already has.
Developing a sustainable tourist industry in Bulgaria calls for much more than adapting to the language and cultures of a specific season’s clients, meaning doing more than putting menu items in Romanian and Russian instead of, or in addition to, English.
The time is overdue for the industry to respond by finally making a serious effort to attract and cater for the domestic market, and for foreign tourists, making Bulgaria competitive through vastly improved levels of service, across-the-board law enforcement on all issues from petty crime to violation of building regulations, bringing an end to the absurd plethora of tourist industry organisations, developing appropriate and sustainable infrastructure, and most of all, moving from mass tourism to a wide range of specialist tourism products.
