The Commission for Consumer Protection (CCP) started checks into the quality of services offered in Bulgaria’s seaside resorts on the southern Black Sea coast on June 5. The checks are part of the inspections CCP conducts along the entire coast. Parallel to the checks, CCP chairperson Damyan Lazarov is meeting the beach concessionaires and representatives of the municipalities along the Black Sea coast ahead of the 2008 summer tourist season.

During the checks, CCP is examining whether tourist facilities, including shops, bars, restaurants, hotels, family hotels, rooms for rent and others, provide complete information about all the services they offer. The inspectors also examine whether the price of the goods on sale is visible and whether notices are readable. Another object of the checks is whether the services offered to the tourists at the beaches are safe.

During most of the inspections along the northern Black Sea coast, the CCP did not find violations. The inspectors examined hotels and rooms for rent, as well as food and entertainment establishments.

During the meetings with the concessionaires of beaches and municipal representatives from the northern Black Sea coast Lazarov said that most of the violations found during the past summer season included the absence of written prices for the rental of beach umbrellas, deck-chairs, massage services, as well as lack of visible information about services, such as jet ski and parachutes.

All beach concessionaires from the northern Black sea coast side accepted Lazarov’s proposal for signboards with the nationwide consumer protection telephone 0700 111 22 to be put at all beach entrances. CCP will provide a sample of the signboards that the concessionaires may use by designing the new plates, the commission said.
On June 5, Lazarov met the companies that own concessions on the southern Black Sea beaches and representatives of municipalities from this area. Municipalities said that they were ready to allocate the premises and people that would register complaints made by tourists, as suggested by Lazarov in an earlier round of talks in May.

The topic of both meetings was categorising the beaches in accordance to the regulations of the Tourism Act and the Beaches Categorising Ordinance.

Another question raised during the meetings was the business done by street-vendors along the beaches. The concessionaires want the peddlers off the beaches and said that they would do everything within their power to remove the peddlers.