After years of a lack of general programme in tourism Bulgarian lawmakers now offer a new concept for the development of the sector. Economy Ministry has developed an entirely new bill, but the big money and private interests make it very questionable whether it will achieve the objectives. In any case, there will be no big surprise if the project undergoes a complete failure, as happened a year ago with the submitted version of the Tourism Act, which was not to the liking of local authorities. The difference is that the main opponents this time are likely to be industry representatives.
Hotel and restaurant operators will be most affected (financially) if the regulations are adopted in their original form. The reason is that it will do away with the bad practice of the stars to tourist facilities being awarded for an indefinite period of time. As incredible as it sounds, today in Bulgaria the categorization of accommodation and catering units is virtually timeless and for which regulators collect a single fee of between BGN500 to BGN5000 depending on the number of rooms or areas. In other words, an old hotel built in the socialist period and renovated ten years ago can shine with the same number of stars as an entirely newly built one. Once having seized the desired number of stars, hoteliers are confident that no one checks if they continue to that meet all criteria and often mislead customers. It is entirely possible that some them do not offer the services they did at their establishing, but the prices for guests remains unchanged.
This absurd scheme was introduced, not without assistance from the tourism lobby, in early 2005 with a change in the Ordinance for categorization of accommodation, catering and entertainment facilities. Until then, the stars were awarded for a period of five years, after which the level of services had to be proven again. Of course, it is beyond doubt that this amendment was convenient to the lobbyt and saved millions to local businessmen.
If the government resists the pressure and manages to have the changes passed, this will have a significant impact on businesses. According to Deputy Economy Minister Ivo Marinov, any checks in this respect will make at least one third of the hotels lose some of their stars. For now the only body that could monitor the hotels is the Commission for Protection of Consumers. But it only works on signals or complaints and its prescriptions are just a recommendation.
However, the move to reevaluate the quality of services will start from 2013 and will only affect sites that have received certification in 2004 and 2005. In 2014 the check will cover facilities certified in 2006 and a 2007. A year later the target of inspections will be those with stars awarded in 2008 and 2009. This provides a considerable period to allow affected businesses to meet the requirements.
The new law also provides for the transfer of more responsibilities to local authorities. They will now classify all objects with 1 and 2 stars (the family hotels of all categories, campsites, motels, rest homes, etc.). Municipalities will be given the opportunity to control them and to impose fines.
Stars will now be given and apartment complexes and hostels, but dropped the categorization of beaches because duplicated concession contracts. Provision of catering services will be done by notification regime, and will establish rules for the exercise of professions Tourist Guide, mountain guide and Ski Instructor.
A new way is envisaged for the spending of tens of millions of state money to development and promotion of tourism. There will be no single special campaign to for the advertising and marketing of Bulgaria as destination, as the idea was in the previous bill. Intentions now are the country to be divided into tourist areas and all campaigns and promotional activities will be assigned to companies that will manage these regions
