2024-04-27 18:54:05
- The regulation of water rescue and the lack of enough experienced rescuers is a serious problem is among the hot topics
- As an alternative for labor in tourism, consensus received the idea of the Erasmus Plus program
On the last day of his three-day visit to the Bulgarian coast, Tourism Minister Evtim Miloshev discussed the hottest topics for the sector on the eve of the summer season with the representatives of the tourism business along the Northern Black Sea coast, the press center of the Ministry of Tourism announced.
Labor shortages, youth inclusion and water rescue issues have sparked the most lively discussions in search of possible solutions.
In connection with existing difficulties in issuing visas for workers from third countries, business representatives expressed concern about the insufficient capacity of consular services, which is expected to be filled only at the end of May. For the industry, however, this is late in view of the start of the summer season and the recruitment process.
Minister Miloshev undertook to cooperate. At the same time, the business thanked the minister for his constructive work so far, read the rapid legal change for visas as a good sign and promised a constructive attitude in response.
As an alternative to finding a qualified workforce in tourism, the topic was raised of how to attract young people in Bulgaria to the tourism business as a career, including through tools such as the Erasmus Plus program, instead of, for example, going to student brigades abroad. This is a big reserve, and we neglect the children, who are the future in our sector, said the representatives of the tourism business.
In response, Minister Miloshev stated that he supports the idea and is well acquainted with the Erasmus program – “this is the potential, the future and confirmation of the prestige of the profession. This is an effort that is worthwhile and meaningful and would be successful,” he commented. A request was made to Miloshev together with the Minister of Education to assist the student summer internships in vocational high schools in tourism to be extended from two weeks to a month and a half.
Water rescue regulation and the lack of enough well-trained and experienced lifeguards is a serious issue and the other hot topic raised by sea beach concessionaires who also took part in the discussion. They asked for a postponement of the regulation and advocated the thesis that the small beaches were particularly affected, for which it is objectively impossible to build medical stations with qualified medical personnel.
Minister Miloshev is committed to assisting in finding a solution to this legal case: “These are requirements for concessionaires that are unfulfillable for the coming season. There is no useful move here for anyone. We will take up this matter very seriously, very quickly, to find a reasonable solution for the season,” he promised and suggested concrete steps such as drawing up an opinion to take an institutional approach.
He emphasized that many of the problems raised are not within the competence of the Ministry of Tourism, but he declared his readiness to mediate in the inter-institutional dialogue.
In the conversations, the sensitive topic of those who died from water trauma was raised. The Ministry of Tourism called on beach managers to provide information on the time and cause of drownings. It is important to keep statistics on the time and the cause, because the reports of these cases often damage the prestige of the tourist product, without the fault of rescuers and concessionaires. It turns out that the significant part of drowning cases are during non-working hours, caused by the use of alcohol and narcotic substances or by non-compliance with the prohibitions of lifeguards.
In the presence of such tourists who do not comply with the orders, please contact the police so that there is no self-harm, urged the minister.
In this context, Minister Miloshev emphasized the positive messages and noted that tourism is strongly dominated by social media and this is a reality that we must take into account. “Such topics related to drunken and drowned tourists become media bombs and sensations with a long media life. All this undermines the prestige of Bulgarian tourism and creates negative messages that often go abroad. The national tourism product must also include communication. My impressions from the past few days are that we have a wonderful tourist product and we should have more self-confidence,” said Evtim Miloshev.
As well as the other meetings during the three-day sea tour of the acting Minister of Tourism, this one also took place with great interest and lively conversations on hot topics. The issue of retaining the 9% VAT for tour operators, which expires in July, was also among the topics discussed. We are looking for an innovative interpretive solution so that the reduced VAT can be applied at least within this season, announced the Minister of Tourism.
From the segment of tour guides, it was noted that a large part of the unsolvable problems in Bulgarian tourism are not on the territory of the Ministry of Tourism. They pointed to the infrastructure and road conditions as obstacles, inadequate working hours of tourist sites and museums not in line with tourists, lack of POS terminals in remote locations, lack of roadside advertising even for UNESCO sites, adequate signs. They also called for concrete steps towards the socialization of sites important for tourism.
Later, the topics were also discussed during the meeting with the local authorities and control bodies from the Dobrich and Varna regions in the Municipality of our maritime capital. In the talks, topical topics for the Northern Coast were raised, such as wild camping, against which serious measures are already being taken, the provision by the Regional Administration of lifeguards on the most visited unguarded beaches such as Shkorpilovtsi, despite serious underfunding, guaranteeing the water supply for the Northern Black Sea Coast, etc. Road repairs are being carried out, green spaces and the urban environment are being improved, an additional presence for the season of the police and fire department is provided on the road from Varna to the northern resort complexes, as well as six foreign police officers from Poland, Romania and Germany.
The CEO of the airport operator of our seaports, Frank Kwante, shared forecast expectations for the season and planned marketing activities in the German-speaking markets of Austria, Germany and Switzerland. He reported about 15% growth in bookings from the German market.
Before the meeting in the municipality, the Minister of Tourism Evtim Miloshev held a meeting with the Mayor of Varna, Blagomir Kotsev. Both predicted a sustainable and successful tourist season, and Mayor Blagomir Kotsev stated the readiness of the seaside town to ensure the smooth running of Summer 2024.