Covid-19 crisis: Most hotels in Bulgaria’s Sunny Beach to shut ahead of schedule
Most hotels in Bulgaria’s largest Black Sea resort, Sunny Beach, will shut by September 10, according to a report by Bulgarian National Television.
In a normal year, the hotels remain open in September and October, receiving late-season tourists.
But against the background of the Covid-19 crisis, the large-scale cancellations of charter flights and a lack of tourists, the hotels will shut their doors early.
The closure of hotels in Sunny Beach matches a similar trend at the Albena tourist resort complex on Bulgaria’s northern Black Sea coast.
At the
height of the summer season, some of the largest complexes in the
Sunny Beach resort are still closed. Some of the smaller hotels have
guests from Germany, Ukraine and Poland.
Elena Ivanova, deputy
head of the Union of Owners in Sunny Beach, said that between
September 10 and 15, on a large scale hotels would shutter because of
a lack of guests.
Some of the hotels in the resort were open for only two weeks and then closed in the face of unprofitability. At the same time, others have drastically reduced the prices of holiday packages, gaining them 80 per cent occupancy.
In
contrast to some hotels, beaches in Sunny Beach are full. Most of the
beachgoers are Bulgarians, and others Russians, owners of apartments
in the western part of the resort.
Given the lack of charter
flights this summer season, the industry is relying mainly on
tourists arriving in Bulgaria by road.
For the rest of The Sofia Globe’s continuing coverage of the Covid-19 situation in Bulgaria, please click here.
The Sofia Globe’s coverage of the Covid-19 situation in Bulgaria is supported by the Embassy of Switzerland.
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