Bulgaria announces the failure of the tourist season at the largest seaside resort

Shorter than expected and worse than predicted: this is how hotel and restaurant operators in Bulgaria's largest seaside resort, Sunny Beach, describe the summer tourist season.

Prices there and at other Black Sea resorts are lower now, but many catering establishments have closed, explaining this by the lack of customers, BNR reports.

For example, Elena Ivanova of the Union of Hoteliers of Sunny Beach said that the summer season was difficult, and the forecasts of the Bulgarian Ministry of Tourism about a significant increase in the number of tourists did not become reality.

"The beginning of the season was very slow and very difficult for everyone with all the factors that affected it, including the war in Ukraine, bad weather, and the fact that our sector does not have an adequate policy. After July 15, everything started to normalize. There were cancellations from the German market and from Scandinavian countries, where people tend to be swayed by bad advertising. We had the biggest number of tourists from Poland, the UK, and Israel," said the owners of local establishments.

However, experts advise not to panic. They predict that the situation in the country's tourism market will stabilize.