Burgas. Union of owners – Sunny Beach organised a protest close to the filling station near the town of Aheloy on Wednesday.
The demonstration was organised to attract the attention of the state and local powers and urge them to solve the long-lasting problems in the tourism sector.
Hundreds of hotel and restaurant keepers, as well as citizens from the Sunny Beach seaside resort and the settlements in the region blocked the Burgas-Sunny Beach road for around 15 minutes as a mark of protest.
The hotel-keepers insist on establishing a separate ministry of tourism within the next government; the national resorts to be independent units with own structure, management, financing and administration of the major activities; outlining measures to overcome the lack of qualified personnel for the tourism business; solving problems connected to the infrastructure in the region; construction of a four-lane road from Burgas Airport to Sunny Beach resort; establishing tourism police; and others.
Hundreds of hotel and restaurant keepers, as well as citizens from the Sunny Beach seaside resort and the settlements in the region blocked the Burgas-Sunny Beach road for around 15 minutes as a mark of protest.
“Owners at the Sunny Beach seaside resort want only security and order, and nothing else, in order to be able to develop the tourism sector of the country,” said Veselin Nalbantov with the Union of Owners in Sunny Beach, speaking for Radio FOCUS – Burgas, commenting on the protest of the hotel and restaurant keepers in the resort.
In his words, the tourism sector does not need a deputy minister, who cannot make decisions and solve problems.
He added that he hopped that a new government would assume the power and undertake the problems of the tourism business seriously, since it was generating 15% of Bulgaria’s gross domestic product (GDP).
“It is unacceptable for a tourist, who has arrived in Bulgaria for two hours from Central Europe and to have to spend two hours for the 17 kilometres between the airport and the resort,” Nalbantov remarked.
“Crime rate at the Bulgarian seaside resorts is a big problem both for the hotel and restaurant owners and for the tourists themselves,” said Elena Ivanova, Chairperson of the Management Board of the Union of Owners in the Sunny Beach resort, speaking for Radio FOCUS – Burgas.
In her words, the police officers commissioned to the seaside resorts are not enough to handle the crime rate.
“I will be honest. The thefts at the beaches are a common phenomenon, as well as the theft of vehicles, which shows that that we have not chosen the right formula,” Ivanova remarked.
That is why one of the demands of the protesting hotel-keepers is the establishment of tourism police.

Source: http://www.focus-fen.net