2024-03-11 07:44:33
Balchik hotel owners are not optimistic about a particularly good summer season. “The one problem continues to be the war in Ukraine. According to the records so far, 30 percent fewer tourists have expressed a desire to rest on the Northern Black Sea coast compared to last year,” says Oleg Kostadinov, a hotel owner.
“An extremely big problem is the workforce. There are no such workers in the country. We are forced to look for labor from Ukraine. We are negotiating with companies that import workers from Central Asia. Even from India or Bangladesh there are offers for workers. Our hotel needs about 20 staff, currently we have 3-4. We count on so many more who have promised. The problem in tourism is that the hotel is open for three months. With preparation for the season and wintering after that, it takes about 2 months. We actually offer jobs for 5 months. We cannot provide 20-30 people with year-round work,” says Kostadinov with concern.
“For now, the outflow is from Bulgarians, Romanians, Hungarians, a few Poles,” he adds.
“Especially for Balchik, the city is losing a lot because it doesn’t have organized beaches. They are small, they cannot accommodate the guests and this is actually a big problem for Balchik. There is a solution to the problem in Varna, we can gain experience. In Italy, Turkey, where the beach is not enough, metal grills are made on which tourists can comfortably sit,” explains the hotelier.
“There are still 20 or so Ukrainian refugees in our hotel, mostly elderly people. Unfortunately, we do not regularly receive the funds allocated by the state for them. About 15 years ago, we received the funds for September and October last year. The payment delay is about 6 months,” explains Kostadinov.
He rates last year’s summer season as average. “Our expectations this year are that the season will be at least like last year’s,” he adds.
“Although Balchik has sentimental value for Romanians with Queen Mary’s Palace, they are starting to come for shorter and shorter periods of time. If before the covid pandemic, an average vacation of Romanian tourists was 10-15 days, now they mainly come on vacation with weekend packages,” says the hotelier.