2024-08-14 18:12:38
The broken tiles on the floor in NIM, the traffic jams along the sea and the lack of lifts for the winter holidays are also negatives
What foreigners don’t like about vacationing in our country is the logistics and communications, says Ventsislav Krastev, chairman of the “Tourism” association. He gave an example of the tiles on the floor in the National History Museum (NIM) in “Boyana” – peeled off, broken. Otherwise, the building is wonderful and the expositions impress the guests.
Another unpleasant aspect for them is the slow movement on the roads. There is nothing to say about the lack of a highway to Varna, but that is not all. This year
Sunny Beach was excavated right at the beginning of the season
and transfers from one end to the other took an awfully long time.
Huge columns of buses traveling from Romania, Moldova and Ukraine have nowhere and no way to stop for the tourists to get off and transfer to the minibuses for their hotels, Krastev also commented. According to experts, special logistics centers should be built. There are traffic jams at the border because of only two lanes of traffic and from there people get nervous.
As for service, there is also a problem because there is no manpower. We import from abroad, the processing of visa applicants’ documents is not expeditious, then the owners cannot pay them, because the issuance of bank accounts with cards is also delayed. All this affects the overall service.
The issue of the regulation of health care is also unresolved. Just a week ago, a family from Lithuania had to pay
BGN 1,500 for examination and treatment of his 9-year-old daughter,
who fell ill during their holiday in Golden Sands. That was this year, and last summer we dealt with the three steaks for BGN 490 – all scandals that hinder the attraction of foreign tourists.
The situation is similar during the winter holidays. The lifts in Vitosha are gone, the one in Borovets is from 1972. Only the one in Bansko is modern, but they have to wait an hour for it and for the lifts, and that kills people’s desire to return. “They are surprised that the problem is not being solved,” adds Krastev. According to him, there is a way to do this and gave an example of how in Lebanon they bought the old facilities from the French resort of Courchevel, which are very good, although second-hand.
So there is still a lot to be desired in order to climb higher in the ranking of holiday destinations for Europeans. And that requires a strategy and the commitment of everyone in the industry.