The shade on the beach will be twice as expensive this year compared to the previous two. This is stated by concessionaires of sea strips, quoted by “Telegraph”.
For example, if last year the price for renting an umbrella on the central and southern beach of Sunny Beach was 5 leva, this year it becomes 10 leva. On the northern strip of the resort, the fee jumps from BGN 4.50 to BGN 9 per shade. Thus, if you are planning a week-long vacation in Sunny Beach and you will use the beach accessories provided by the concessionaires for an umbrella with two sunbeds, you will have to set aside 210 leva, or 30 leva per day.
Tourists in Burgas will also be surprised by the new fees for using shade on the beach. If until last year they were free, now visitors will have to pay BGN 1.20 to rent an umbrella.
We will pay an average of BGN 20 to 30 this summer for the extras on the beach. That’s how much a set of umbrellas with two sunbeds under it comes out.
Concessionaires on the South Black Sea coast have already officially announced that they are returning the prices from the summer of 2019, which were in force until the covid pandemic. They will charge tourists with the amounts stipulated in their concession contracts. In the previous two years, due to the pandemic and the lack of foreigners, the Ministry of Tourism proposed as a measure to attract Bulgarians to their home resorts to reduce fees paid by concessionaires by at least 50%, in exchange for farmers to lower prices for beach accessories.
Thus, out of a total of 132 sea beaches on our Black Sea coast in 2021, concessionaires and tenants agreed to eliminate the prices of umbrellas and sunbeds in only 11 places. The beaches “Riviera”, “Bunite 2”, “Obzor Motel”, “Burgas-North”, “Burgas-Central”, “Primorsko-Central” and “Camping Nestinarka”, “Shkorpilovtsi-South”, “Aheloy” were free. “Atanasovska kosa” – part 1, as well as the central beach in Tsarevo.
For the upcoming season, however, this measure has not been discussed and will not be applied and concessionaires can charge tourists with the amounts recorded in their contracts, but not higher.
They vary from 5 to 15 BGN per piece depending on the location. The most expensive are traditionally in the large resorts of Golden Sands, Sunny Beach, Saint Vlas and Sozopol. On the South Beach – Nessebar, and Ravda – Olympic Hopes, the price will be BGN 8 for an umbrella and as much for a deck chair. The two beaches in Sozopol will offer extras at different prices – for Harmani beach they are BGN 8, and for Central – BGN 7.
According to the amended rules, valid for the new concessions, the candidates participate with an offer, in which they indicate the price of the beach extras, which is subsequently included in the concession contracts. This is the maximum allowable price at which umbrellas and sunbeds can be rented until the expiration of the concession. The arbitrary increase entails hefty fines and the risk of canceling the concession contract, concessionaires explained. “Many of us won our concessions a year or two ago and signed 20-year contracts.
This means that we have no right to raise the prices of umbrellas and sunbeds, and the situation in the country and the world has changed a lot. There is high inflation, electricity and fuels have jumped dramatically, and so has the minimum wage. We alone cannot adjust prices.
This is extremely unfair and puts everyone in the industry at enormous risk of bankruptcy. We spent two difficult years with a covid pandemic and reduced tourist flow, now the situation is even worse in tourism due to the war with Ukraine. “Nobody knows how they will make ends meet, and at the same time, concession fees are rising every year because they are indexed to inflation,” complain concessionaires and beach tenants.
According to hoteliers and tour operators, the return of high values will again drive Bulgarian tourists to neighboring destinations – Greece and Turkey. Concessionaires have admitted that they are considering initiating negotiations with the Ministry of Tourism to find a mutually beneficial solution.
In Varna the fee freezes
The prices of umbrellas and sunbeds on Varna’s beaches remain unchanged this summer, said the representative of the concessionaire Andrey Vassilev. The prices will be BGN 5 for an umbrella, BGN 5 for a deck chair and BGN 1 for a blanket. The preparation of the beaches starts before St. George’s Day, if the weather is appropriate, Vassilev said.
The first strip that will be prepared for the season before May 24 is Central Beach. “Mandatory at the beginning of the season the whole beach area is prepared by bulldozer. After that, it will be cleaned by hand every day, and by the end of September – once a week by machine. This will be done early in the morning between 4 and 5 o’clock, when no one is on the beach.
The prices on the beach of Zlatnite will be BGN 8 for a deck chair, the same for an umbrella and BGN 3 for a blanket. Thus, for an umbrella and two sunbeds of the Golden this year will be paid from 24 to 36 levs depending on the location of the beach. In the parking lot at the beginning of the resort they will charge BGN 10 per car. If you park somewhere in the complex, the private spider will immediately pick up the car and the owner will have to pay BGN 80 to get it. At the former residence of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party “Sunny Day” will be paid BGN 7 for an umbrella and as much for a deck chair. On St. St. Constantine and Helena prices vary from 6 and 7 levs to 10 levs.
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