2024-05-06 03:51:16
Excursions are going up another 20% this summer because of plane tickets
At least 1.6 million Bulgarians will visit near or far abroad in the coming months. That’s how much they went on vacation or an excursion abroad from May to September last year. It is very likely that there will be a growth of about ten percent and more.
May is the first month of the year in which Bulgarians’ trips increase sharply.
Those who cross the borders for fun, and not for a business trip, become much more in August – last year they were over 395 thousand. If we subtract from them the 238,000 who were in Greece and Turkey this month, there are still around 150,000 who went on an excursion, on vacation in the Maldives or to another exotic destination.
If all these people plan to do the same this year,
will be quite disappointed
because the prices are at least 15-20% higher. As a matter of fact, some of them have already understood it – the websites of the largest Bulgarian tour operators are full of offers for reservations, but in the end the bill is noticeably bigger.
Even a 3-day trip to Vienna already costs from BGN 800 upwards, and it is a 50-minute flight to the Austrian capital and two nights in a 3-star hotel. It is true that the program is varied, but even the walking tour of the center of Vienna is paid extra, not to mention the visits to museums, the opera house and a typical Viennese patisserie.
And since you are flying with a low-cost airline, you have to pay an additional 105 BGN per tourist for checked baggage up to 10 kg in both directions.
An excursion of the same duration, but to Brussels, costs more than 1100 BGN. Again, you fly with a low-cost airline and the plane lands not exactly in Brussels, but in Charleroi.
And a slightly longer excursion – a 6-day trip, with a visit to Antwerp, Amsterdam, Ghent and Bruges, costs over BGN 1,700 this summer.
Although more expensive, trips around Europe are still affordable for Bulgarians. If he decides to visit another continent, he has to pay a fortune. One of the leading tour operators, for example, is currently organizing an excursion to Brazil, the price of which is BGN 6,600 per person. There is no way to use a low-cost airline, you fly via Frankfurt and Munich with the German national airline Lufthansa.
But the icing on the cake is a safari in South Africa. The excursion is 14 days long, and from its description it is understood that
it’s about photo safaris
in two of the country’s national parks. The price is set at BGN 9,999.
Of course, there are also super-cheap European tours that offer enticing-sounding destinations, but they’re only by bus.
A company promises, for example, to see Florence, Venice, Genoa, Turin and Trieste in 6 days with 5 nights. But only 3 of them are in 3 and 2 star hotel. 2 are on the bus during overnight trips. If you have energy left, you can also admire Venice, but the night is actually in Lido di Jesolo and you have to go to Venice by train, for which you pay extra and only if you want.
For Florence, 4-5 hours remain available, which is ridiculous, because this is a time
just enough to take a picture in front of Michelangelo’s David statue
You can, of course, also visit the Uffizi gallery for an additional fee of BGN 99, and only if there are at least 20 people. The hotel is outside Florence, most often in Montecatini, because Florentine hotels are unattainably priced.
All this pleasure costs between BGN 500 and BGN 600, with early booking you can find offers for BGN 499. But no matter how you look at it, this money is only for the transport and the three nights with breakfast.
One of the main reasons for the big jump in the prices of excursions abroad is plane tickets. After world aviation landed in 2020, its exit from the crisis has been accompanied by a lot of problems – no crews, no service,
and lately there aren’t enough planes either
At the same time, after the pandemic ended, people rushed to fly.
The safety problems at Boeing and the restriction imposed by the state authorities on the production of new machines mean that even budget airlines are forced to raise ticket prices.
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary recently said the carrier’s summer schedule was built around an expected delivery of 57 Boeing 737-8200s that simply wouldn’t come. This prompted the airline to raise ticket prices by 10% for April, with another 15-20% expected to rise in the summer.
For the last year, according to NSI, the prices of flights in our country have increased by 18%, but for international flights the price increase reaches 25 percent.
At the same time, this surge in prices is associated with a real mockery of passengers by airlines – regular delays, a visible decline in service, even poor customer service. Simply because they are currently in the strong position.
The concerns of the local hoteliers, who expect a measly increase in foreign tourists this year, are related to the same problem, because
not enough charter companies,
to bring guests to us. Almost all Bulgarian airlines operate abroad because they are in high demand.
Apart from the expensive flights, the other reason is the numerous fees that a number of European cities have started introducing to visit in order to fight over-tourism.
For several weeks, the municipality of Venice has been demanding 5 euros from every person who entered the city, regardless of their work. The fee is not due every day, but on certain days, which, however, are determined by the municipality month by month. That is why the tour operators in our country collect BGN 10 extra, and then return it to some customers, but not to others.
And Monaco introduced this summer a record 15 euros per person, in case they stay overnight on the territory of the principality. And the overnight fee in Amsterdam
is calculated as 12.5% of the value of the overnight stay
Between 8 and 11 euros per day are collected from cruise passengers.
Such a fee is also collected in Bulgaria from foreign tourists, but it is 1.50 euros per night. In Barcelona, from April 1, the fee was raised to 3.50 euros.
This entrance fee to enter the cities may not seem like much against the rest of the costs, but it’s just one of the many additional fees that tour operators don’t include in the big-figure prices. They are in fine print. If you add the tickets for museums, attractions and what not, an excursion, which supposedly costs 3,000 BGN, can reach up to 4,000.
Venice introduced at the end of April a fee of 5 euros to enter the city, but the local municipality does not collect it every day, but on certain days that it chooses month by month. The aim is to regulate the flow of tourists.