Many of the temporary owners of beaches in the country of Bulgaria have entered into „bright“ long-term contracts some fifteen years ago and worry that they may soon lose the golden opportunity. The annual fee they pay to manage part of the beach is updated only for inflation, while their sources of income in recent years grow rapidly – there are more tourists, restaurants and attractions, including concessionaires who collect all sorts of fees.
Cutest revenues come from beach restaurants – or the so-called temporary movable objects. Their number does not affect the size of the concession fee, while they can bring very large profits. It suffices to take up more than half of the sand area. Prices for establishing coastal bars for one season start from 10,000 levs and can go over 50,000 levs, depending on type and size. The sleek resorts can ask for fees even reaching up to 75,000 and even 100,000 levs for one summer. These amounts, however, are not at all shocking to restaurateurs, as money is easily earned when a beer costs 7 levs and a soda – five. Actually, if a beach has three or four restaurants, the concessionaire may pay off their fees to the state only from their rents. Moreover, it is an open secret that almost always these funds are negotiated and paid cash and in private, while the contracts show completely different figures. The aim is to avoid taxes and so legally the revenues stay low, which is kind of a prerequisite for not raising concession fees.
Another source of „easy“ profits for concessionaires are beach games such as mini golf, volleyball, trampoline bungee, badminton and others. Anyone who wants to offer such facilities on the sand beaches, pay rent of several thousand levs depending on the number of tourists who visit the area. The amounts are much larger when the entertainment is in the sea. For example, for attractions such as pedalos, jet skis, banana jets, surfing and the kind a concessionaire takes between 10,000 and 15,000 levs per season. It should be noted that in these cases the owner of the beach again makes no costs.
As easy and pleasant the mentioned income from rentals may be, the attention of all beach businesses is concentrated on something completely different – the umbrellas and lounge chairs. It is they who fill the pockets most significantly. Not accidentally the charging of people is overseen by the concessionaire’s closest people – preferably relatives. Often even the concessionaire himself spends the day in the hot sand to monitor whether every holidaymaker pays for the „shadow“ of the umbrellas. There are a number of options which take as much money from tourists. Each umbrella can be bundled with two lounges. Another trick is to put a ban for putting towels in the area between the first umbrellas and the sea, forcing families with children to pay to be able to monitor their kids in the water.
Simple calculations show that a medium-sized beach ( with a length of 500 meters and width 40 meters) can accommodate around 450 umbrellas (on average at 4 metres away from each other on 50% of the sand area). Assuming that the price is 5 levs, the daily revenue reaches up to 2,250 lev. In the active season of at least 75 days the final amount is nearly 170,000 levs. But surely there is even more money because, according to people in the industry, at least 20% of the umbrellas are offered again within a day. Quite apart from this are the receipts from chaise longs and the few tents (for about 50 levs per day), there are separate fees for tables, mats, towels and more.
Although by law a half of the beach should be free of umbrellas (editor’s note. – where there are no umbrellas and people do not pay fees for the use thereof), in practice things are not quite like this. Uncovered with umbrellas are only the worst parts of the beach, where besides all bins are being transported to. In reality, the concessionaires do not violate the law, but if tourists decide not to pay, they will have probably to lie close to the garbage.
Easy money for the owners of the beach concessions, however, does not end there. Good income comes from many stalls and kiosks that offer all sorts of goods. The fees that tenants pay for them, start from 2,000-3,000 levs and may come to more than 10,000 levs. Slightly different, but also lucrative situation is with vendors of corn, ice cream, snacks, fruit and mineral water. More often concessionaires hire for a certain wage (not less than 50 levs per day) people to do the job. And only at small beaches sometimes this activity is assignable for the whole season against 1,000 and 2,000 levs per season.
Of course, a beach concession is associated with substantial costs, other than the state fee. These are basically cleaning the sand, providing security, lifeguards, medical staff and a number of other things. The general opinion is that the maintenance costs for one season come to about 50% of the concession fee. Not everywhere the things are so rosy, though. In 2013 for example, 64 beaches were never concessioned. The reasons were either non-constructed infrastructure, which significantly limits the opportunities for making money or want unrealistically high state taxes.
The BANKER
