British embassy launches Holiday Hangover info campaign in Bulgaria
The British embassy to Bulgaria launched the Holiday Hangover information and prevention campaign in Slunchev Bryag (Sunny Beach) seaside resort on June 10, targeting British tourists visiting Bulgaria’s Black Sea resorts.
The embassy registered an increase in the number of cases when British tourists required consular assistance in 2012, British consul Jon O’Shaughnessy said, as quoted by news agency Focus. Many of those cases could have been prevented and that is what the information and prevention campaign hopes to achieve, he said.
The campaign, opened by O’Shaughnessy and Bourgas police department commissioner Milen Dimitrov, will run throughout the summer, with the assistance of local police and other local partners, the Bourgas police department said in a statement.
Last year, in the five months between May 1 and October 1, the consular office of the British embassy was asked to render assistance with 24 deaths, three instances of death as a result of people falling from balconies, 25 hospitalisations, two cases of sexual assault, nine arrests, 20 instances of lost passports in Slunchev Bryag and two in Varna, as well as 29 cases requiring other assistance.
Among the advice issued by the embassy to British tourists is to carefully check the terms of their insurance (many standard policies do not cover injuries from extreme sports, such as jet-skis or water skiing), keep a close eye on their valuables while on the beach, be careful when spending time on the balcony of their room, as well as avoid returning to their hotel alone in the dark or with people they do not know well.
In case of emergency, British tourists are advised to call the EU emergency number 112 or 999 from their British mobile. Additional advice is available on the Foreign and Commonwealth’s Office foreign travel checklist here, and the travel advice page for Bulgaria can be found here.
(Sunny Beach, photo: vacacionesbulgaria.com)
