Post by TheTravelBug on Apr 26, 2008 12:18:00 GMT
This is an interesting topic posted in the Sofia Echo about the domination of 'all inclusive' deals for the coast and private beach space.
The Sofia Echo - Saturday Blog
00:01 Sat 26 Apr 2008 - Petar Kostadinov
Summer is coming and it would not be wrong to say that Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast is preparing for another profitable holiday season. It is no secret that Bulgaria’s economic growth, that some choose to call a “boom”, is due more to the tourism industry than any other sector.
In the past five years, British and Scandinavian tourists have dominated Bulgaria’s tourism industry, only natural because those countries do not have the weather to sustain a vivid sea tourism industry. Compared to the French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian beaches, Bulgaria’s seashore comes at a relatively cheap price, with lots of liquor laid on as well.
I wonder if this is the future of Bulgaria: to become a country for low-class tourists who come here only for a week of cheap drinks and food. Or maybe this is already true. The evidence: Every “all inclusive” holiday package offered to foreigners by Bulgarian tour operators includes “free” food and drinks on the premises of the hotels they are staying in.
In effect, this means that the tourists need spend nothing outside the walls of the hotels because, indeed, it’s “all inclusive”: the food, the pools, the beaches, the bars, the spa.
It is enough to take a walk in one of the many resorts along the Black Sea coast to see groups of people, each with plastic or cotton bracelets on their wrists, all in one colour. These wristlets serve as a “ticket to fruitfulness” because it identifies those who are entitled to a hotel’s hospitality.
Presumably, the tourists paid their local tour operator for these packages weeks in advance. The tourist agency, in return, has paid some money to their Bulgarian colleagues. The effect – apart from the advance payment, the tourists spend no other money in Bulgaria, if you do not count those lovely souvenirs with Rila monastery or the customary CD of Bulgarian folklore music.
And because someone told Bulgarian businessmen that Bulgaria must be filled with five-storey four- and five-star hotels, the foreign tourists that make up most of the market in Bulgaria enjoy a “happy hour” that they could not afford in their own countries.
It is not these tourists’ fault. They paid what was asked of them, ruling out any question of disputes.
To avoid accusations of unfair treatment of the subject, it should be recorded that Bulgarians are also being asked to pay.
They are asked first to pay for entering the resorts with their cars, secondly to park there if there are parking spaces at all – because, naturally, hotels prefer to keep their parking spaces reserved for their guests, and resort managements prefer to have their resorts filled with hotels rather than with parking areas.
Further, Bulgarians are asked to pay to be allowed to use the beaches. And this is possible only where there are any “free” beaches left, because now there are plenty of hotels that keep beach sections “reserved” for the bracelet people.
Then and only then, Bulgarians are allowed to enjoy their personal space of one sq m at the crowded beaches.
And because Bulgarians don’t have “bracelets”, they spend their money at the numerous taverns, restaurants and discos, which makes Bulgarians the sole source of income in a local economy.
The Sofia Echo - Saturday Blog
00:01 Sat 26 Apr 2008 - Petar Kostadinov
Summer is coming and it would not be wrong to say that Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast is preparing for another profitable holiday season. It is no secret that Bulgaria’s economic growth, that some choose to call a “boom”, is due more to the tourism industry than any other sector.
In the past five years, British and Scandinavian tourists have dominated Bulgaria’s tourism industry, only natural because those countries do not have the weather to sustain a vivid sea tourism industry. Compared to the French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian beaches, Bulgaria’s seashore comes at a relatively cheap price, with lots of liquor laid on as well.
I wonder if this is the future of Bulgaria: to become a country for low-class tourists who come here only for a week of cheap drinks and food. Or maybe this is already true. The evidence: Every “all inclusive” holiday package offered to foreigners by Bulgarian tour operators includes “free” food and drinks on the premises of the hotels they are staying in.
In effect, this means that the tourists need spend nothing outside the walls of the hotels because, indeed, it’s “all inclusive”: the food, the pools, the beaches, the bars, the spa.
It is enough to take a walk in one of the many resorts along the Black Sea coast to see groups of people, each with plastic or cotton bracelets on their wrists, all in one colour. These wristlets serve as a “ticket to fruitfulness” because it identifies those who are entitled to a hotel’s hospitality.
Presumably, the tourists paid their local tour operator for these packages weeks in advance. The tourist agency, in return, has paid some money to their Bulgarian colleagues. The effect – apart from the advance payment, the tourists spend no other money in Bulgaria, if you do not count those lovely souvenirs with Rila monastery or the customary CD of Bulgarian folklore music.
And because someone told Bulgarian businessmen that Bulgaria must be filled with five-storey four- and five-star hotels, the foreign tourists that make up most of the market in Bulgaria enjoy a “happy hour” that they could not afford in their own countries.
It is not these tourists’ fault. They paid what was asked of them, ruling out any question of disputes.
To avoid accusations of unfair treatment of the subject, it should be recorded that Bulgarians are also being asked to pay.
They are asked first to pay for entering the resorts with their cars, secondly to park there if there are parking spaces at all – because, naturally, hotels prefer to keep their parking spaces reserved for their guests, and resort managements prefer to have their resorts filled with hotels rather than with parking areas.
Further, Bulgarians are asked to pay to be allowed to use the beaches. And this is possible only where there are any “free” beaches left, because now there are plenty of hotels that keep beach sections “reserved” for the bracelet people.
Then and only then, Bulgarians are allowed to enjoy their personal space of one sq m at the crowded beaches.
And because Bulgarians don’t have “bracelets”, they spend their money at the numerous taverns, restaurants and discos, which makes Bulgarians the sole source of income in a local economy.
