A tourist guarantee fund will pay compensation in the event of bankruptcy of tour operators. This is provided for by changes in the Law on Tourism published for public discussion.
The sector does not agree with the proposed changes, as their proposals have not been taken into account.
“This fund appears with the existence of a directive from 2016, which gives the obligation of each country to prepare the business so as to guarantee the money of the customers when traveling. Insurance, bank guarantee or guarantee fund. We use the insurance that proved ineffective in Covid. From the business, we have expressed a serious desire to start this guarantee fund because it is the most viable option. For 3 years now, we have been working on the preparation of a model for a guarantee fund. What is currently being published as a project is not approved by the business,” commented Pavlina Ilieva, the chairperson of the “Future for Tourism” Association, in “Bulgaria Morning”.
Vencislav Krastev, who is the chairman of the “Tourism” Association, confirmed that this is the first time they have seen the project in its form.
“We find that the ‘Control’ chapter is missing. How will these tour operators be controlled? The creation of the two entities is not properly described. In this way, a door is totally opened for a gray area. We couldn’t make up our minds. This guarantee fund must be filled with contributions,” he emphasized to Bulgaria ON AIR.
“Nobody provides a mechanism for how these contributions will be calculated and in what size they will be,” Ilieva agreed.
“Our biggest concern is that we are creating two entities in the market that will mislead the consumer because they will have fundamentally different activities at work. The user has to be very well prepared, which is not the point of the whole thing. First it is on the tour operators, then it will reflect on the consumers. Decisions are introduced that will make it difficult for business and we will mislead consumers. We feel used and rejected,” she said.
Krastev added that they hope there will be a dialogue and will request a meeting.
“This fund is created to protect customers and for us to work peacefully. And other people see the loopholes and may take advantage of them,” he pointed out.
From the words of the two guests, it became clear that they will seek wider support from the other associations and will come out with an official statement and proposals for changes in the bill.
“We strongly doubt that KZP, with the aggravated way of working, will be able to exercise control. The tourist guarantee fund will carry an additional administrative burden, but it should not have an effect on the user, and this will happen,” Ilieva also said.
dnes.bg
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