The summer season in the northern part of the Bulgarian Black Sea coast starts from June 1 to 15, Dimitar Dimitrov, president of the Association of the Hotel and Restaurant Industry of North-East Bulgaria, reported 24Chasa.bg.

“And at the beginning of the season, the problem of labor shortage remains. I must emphasize here that this applies to all professions in this field – from general workers, waiters to cooks, etc. The problem worsened even more during the two years of the pandemic, when workers worked in the field for only 5-6 months at a time,” Dimitrov added.

In search of a means of livelihood and better conditions, a significant part of the workers in the industry retrained or left the country, turning to foreign labor markets.” Currently, about 560 workers are still needed, and ten days ago, 1,600 were needed.

“Many hotels are waiting for workers from abroad – from Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine. The problem is that visas are issued for three months, there is no time for study. I warned the Ministry of Tourism, I have information that the problem is being worked out – visas should be valid for at least 5 months,” Dimitrov added.

“We rely on students who graduate from the vocational high school of tourism in Dobrich, but a significant part of them continue their studies, and about 20% of them remain in the local market, which is very little,” Dimitrov added.

Salaries in the industry are different and depend on the position held, an expert in the industry also commented. The salary for dishwashers, cleaners and low-skilled staff is about 1,200-1,300 leva gross, up to 3,000 leva and more for cooks and other positions. There are also vouchers for transport and food.

Also this summer, about 80 robots will be part of the service staff of coastal units in the northern part of the Black Sea. “We are talking about robot waiters who speak Bulgarian, take orders and serve. During the summer season, they will be in Balchik, Kranevo and other places,” Dimitrov said.

Foreign tourists who are expected this season on the northern Bulgarian coast of the Black Sea, traditionally from Romania, Germany, Poland – there is a significant increase from the Czech Republic, other European countries, as well as Turkey. “There are a lot of registrations for Bulgaria in the region of Constanta-Tulca, Romania.

More than 4.5 million people live in this region. Romanian tourists prefer to come to Bulgaria with weekend packages – for 3-4 days,” said Dimitrov, who visited this area of ​​Romania to meet with tour operators and travel agencies.

Photo: Stoyan Khaitov, Dreamstime.com

Article courtesy of Rador