Really shocking that ....it will not effect my family as we usually don't go onto the beach ......but one of the reasons we stopped going to Spain & started to visit Bulgaria was we felt as if we were getting treated like cash machines in Spain & I vowed never to go back .....we went to Bulgaria & it was great, but the money grabbing companies that own the resorts are making life for the honest Bulgarian people trying to earn a small living out of restaurants,sunbeds...etc,bars & shops really very hard indeed with the increased rents charged for all the above.....& the tourists have started to vote with there feet.....not good news

It looks, from this Darik article, as though Mayor Nikolay Domitrov has had an urgent meeting with the concessionaire's representative.

The result is reported to be an agreement to reduce the charge by 10 Leva, to 5 Leva for a sunshade and the same for a sun lounger in the 'VIP zone'. Outside the VIP zone, a sunshade on its own will cost 3 Leva.

The two parties are reported to have reached agreement because of the limited number of tourists and to ensure the success of the season.

Parasols 6 lev, Lounger 6 lev, 2 lev a mattress per day at Albena, only 3 and 3 at Kranevo (next resort) will update on Albena tomorrow, but get your cheque book and credit cards ready. Tonyt.

Hi Tony,

Hope you are having a good time in Albena.

I must take my sun loungers & mattresses from 'Baldur Towers' down to Albena next month - a bit difficult to get them on the bus, but I'd soon recoup their purchase price at 8 Leva each per day....

Baldur

P.S. If you are in need of a lunchtime snack in Dobrich, do what the locals do and pop down to the Kaufland supermarket (just down the main road from the bus station) - there's a little snack bar outside which sells a variety of hot snacks & drinks.

Last year 3 x kebapcheta or 3 x kyufteta served with a bread roll and lutenitsa/ketchup/mayonnaise/mustard cost 1.69 Leva or a 'Maxi Turinger' (large German sausage) with bread roll and choice of sauces was 1.99 Leva.

Hi John, Don't these people realise that if they start charging Spanish prices people will just go to Spain rather than Bulgaria. They are slowly killing the golden goose

By the way can I order 2 German sausages in a roll with ketchup take-away. Sounds lovely.
Hope you are well and enjoying life in Baldur Towers.
Toonman

Don't these people realise that if they start charging Spanish prices people will just go to Spain rather than Bulgaria.

Spain, where the season is longer and the weather more reliable being a Mediterranean climate? If the Bulgarians get greedy and drive prices up, Bulgaria becomes just another tourist destination, but how does it compare with elsewhere?

Take away the currently still generally cheap prices, and I suspect people will start to get picky.

We've seen it all before in the middle 1990s, when it was a German magazine that remarked about the mismatch between prices and quality of service. This was in the aftermath of the botched privatisation of Balkantourist and Balkan Holidays that prices started to rise, whilst the hotels crumbled due to lack of investment. Tourism took a nosedive, and years to recover.

It's all a bit deja vu, and bad enough that prices are inevitably rising due to EU membership, without the Bulgarians making the situation worse.

Peter

Hi Peter,

This Sofia Echo article, unsurprisingly, indicates a very poor season this year.

@ Toonman

Hi Gordon,

By the way can I order 2 German sausages in a roll with ketchup take-away. Sounds lovely.

The size of these 'макси тюрингер' really is 'maxi' - you'd need three of the bread rolls to contain even one of the sausages. They certainly do take-aways at the same price; it's quite usual to see police cars and other mobile workers' vehicles pull up there, so that their occupants can purchase lunch-on-the-go.

I will no doubt sample a few when I go back to Bulgaria at the end of June but I'll have горчица (gorchitsa/mustard) rather than кетчуп (ketchup).

This Sofia Echo article, unsurprisingly, indicates a very poor season this year.

Doesn't surprise me either, but as we know, tourist numbers have been falling year on year, despite the Bulgarians being in denial. Perhaps Bulgaria is proof positive that economists haven't got a clue, because for the past decade and a half just about every young Bulgarian I have spoken to has been studying economics at university.

What's depressing about the article is that they just haven't got it -

- Fly in tourists in May when precious little is open, and not only don't they come back they warn all their friends

- Ditto from the middle of September on

- Mess about with booked and confirmed flights, and customers get very annoyed, tend to cancel, and don't return

- Making it nearly impossible to fly direct to Varna, really irritates. Many people can't stand Sunny Beach, and are certainly not going to put up with travelling to and from Burgas thank you very much

- Turning Albena into just about 100% all inclusive will ensure its death as a tourist resort. AI means limited choice, poor service, long queues, and staff who are surly because they don't get tipped

- When it's cheap and cheerful tourists are very tolerant. Crank prices up and they become very critical, it's happened before, learn from recent history

Peter

Baldur and Peter, how right you are about Albena, at present there are only 10 Hotels out of 43 open, and they are running at only 30%, it is a Ghost Resort. Everything else is open but there is a very distinct drop in tourists. Last evening I walked along seafront from Moby Dick to Old House at 10 pm I counted 14 people in about 1 kilometre, I then walked the main street, 6 in Natashas Rest by Bazaar, 9 in Mexican (ex Pete's House) and a group of 6 were playing. 4 in Drouzbha, 5 in Pizza Parlour (ex mumbies) just 4 in the Poco Loco and 11 in Irish Bar. Taxi Fares are now 1.40 lev per klm, rent for stands being put up to 5.400 lev this year. My friend has been sitting from 8 in morning to 6 at night and still without work, fares within the resort now 10 lev, was 5 lev last season. many hotels will not be opening because of lack of tourists. Rate in hotels is 2.10 but Nationwide is giving me just over 2.21. I will give a fuller report on prices tomorrow night. weather still very good. Tonyt.

Hmmm, all sounds a bit depressing - we leave for sunny beach in less than two weeks so i'd be interested to know how busy it is

What depressing reports that are coming from the resorts and papers and i was looking forward to my holiday but in two minds now June

Thanks for the report Tony,

Sounds as though I'll just be visiting the Albena bus station before walking down the beach to Kranevo again this year, if I fancy a few hours in a resort.

The despondency of the Albena restaurateurs and other concessionaires sounds as though it will be even worse this year than the last couple of years, when it was bad enough (I even almost pitied the taxi drivers, so it must have been bad ).

The major problem is the knock-on effect that this will have on the wider local economy which tends to rely on 'spin-off' earnings from the resorts in areas such as transport, restaurants & other businesses in Dobrich as well as local villagers who would normally expect to have the opportunity to apply for relatively well-paid work (as handymen, chambermaids, etc.) in the resort for three or four months.

Baldur