Blagoi Ragin, President of the Bulgarian Hotel and Restaurant Association: We need airports for low cost flights as well as motorways

- Mr. Ragin, did the introduced uniform 9% VAT rate on hotel accommodation in tourism affect the end consumer this summer?
- The end user could hardly feel this change because the market is being run by monopolists. The increase of prices of gas, water, electricity and fuel does not allow us to either to decrease or raise prices. The change cannot be felt neither by us, nor by the client. Prices of basic foodstuffs also increased. We need to find a mechanism for dealing with monopolies in a free market. We, businessmen, believe that a private monopoly is much more dangerous than a State monopoly. When these companies were privatised, ways should have been devised for protecting end consumers.

How would you assess this summer season in terms of hotel businesses?
- Despite the poor image we have created for ourselves and the underdeveloped infrastructure, the market has been improving and Bulgaria is competitive in spite of all the flaws and mistakes. The nature in our country is unique, there is a good balance between quality and price and we have one of the best accommodation bases which is certainly better not only than that of our competitors but across the EU as well. Bulgarian architects and designers have created ‘palaces’ in our resorts.

Now, we have to support the Government in its implementation of the planned infrastructure projects. New airports for low cost flights should be opened because there is great interest in online bookings. In this respect, we are lagging behind Italy, Greece, France and Spain where airplanes flying to tourist resorts are scheduled every five minutes. A low cost flight from Germany to Spain is some € 20-30. We are thankful for the airport at the seaside town of Balchik, but the Government should find a similar alternate airport for low cost flights in Southern Bulgaria, too. We would like to develop cultural tourism within the country, SPA and balneology have been developing very well, golf tourism is stirring up, hunting tourism is gaining momentum. Therefore, in addition to motorways we will also need airports for low cost flights.

- What is the situation with multiple visas for citizens from countries such as Russia and Turkey which are not EU members?
- This is our biggest problem. We were very happy when we joined the EU. But along with the benefits from our EU-accession we had to ‘pay a tax’. This has created obstacles to the largest countries whose citizens can be our guests - Russia, the Ukraine, Turkey and Kosovo. Very dynamic talks on relieving the visa regime are currently being held between Moscow and Brussels. If the visa regime is eased, the interest of Russians towards Bulgaria will double. Spain and Greece have settled this issue and Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry can follow their steps in this respect. It is clear that anti-crisis measures should be taken at a time crisis. We have proposed the introduction of 5-10-year visas. Two things have to be done – the visa regime to be relieved and more low cost flights to be launched. German low cost airlines fly to France, Spain and Greece, Russia and should include Bulgaria within their destinations as well.

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