Bulgaria hopes for summer rebound
By Xinhua Published: May 12, 2021 03:38 PM
Traditionally, the peak summer months are crucial to Bulgaria's tourism industry, and the Balkan country is getting ready to welcome visitors again, but expectations are muted this year.
The pandemic has had a devastating effect on the country's tourism sector, Professor Stoyan Marinov, board member of the Varna Chamber of Tourism, said in a recent interview with Xinhua.
International tourist arrivals and expenditure both dropped by about 60 percent in 2020 compared to 2019.
The ethnographic village of Etar located near the town of Gabrovo has been famous for its crafts since the 18th century. In 1964, the village was transformed into Bulgaria's first open-air architectural and ethnographic museum. Due to the pandemic, the museum had to stay closed for several months, and it reopened only before this year's Easter holidays.
Visitors are trickling back, but the site is still far from a full recovery.
Kirisov, who operates a wood products workshop, is worried. "The number of tourists has not recovered to the level before the epidemic, and our sales figures are even worse. There are days when we sell but a few of our products only."
The number of tourists visiting Etar during this year's Easter holidays slightly increased over the previous months, but the local craftsmen's sales were still lagging way behind the pre-pandemic levels.
"On normal weekdays, we welcome only a few tourists to Etar. Since the Easter holidays, their number has increased significantly, but our sales figures have not followed suit," commented Martin, the owner of a silver jewelry store in Etar. He explained that the pandemic had eroded the tourists' purchasing power, and this, coupled with the mandatory closure of the village's workshops during the lockdown, had left him with a large unsold inventory.
The month of May was likewise "lost" for the beachside resorts on the Black Sea, which according to Marinov normally cater for 70 percent of all tourists visiting Bulgaria. June will likewise fall victim to the pandemic, he said, because there are still no incoming flights from the country's key tourist markets, such as the United Kingdom or Germany.
This month, Bulgaria's seaside resorts reopened mostly to local tourists, but from June the country expects visitors from Romania and Poland to return by the busload, said Marinov, adding that regular charter flights may also restart in early July.
Since the start of the pandemic, the Bulgarian state has implemented a host of measures to tackle the pandemic. Among others, it has adopted COVID-19 safety protocols for tourist destinations, based on which the country joined the World Travel & Tourism Council's global safety and hygiene stamp initiative known as "Safe Travels."
"In early March, the Ministry of Tourism adopted uniform anti-epidemic and sanitary measures for tourist sites [hotels, restaurants, vehicles, beaches, swimming pools, spas], which sent a positive message that we are a safe and secure destination," Marinov said.
Another decision, although a little belated, was the priority COVID-19 vaccination of people employed at Bulgaria's seaside resorts.
According to a survey conducted by Bulgaria's National Statistical Institute in April, 43 percent of hotel managers across the country plan to continue their business this summer, and 42 percent foresee minor cutbacks only.