SOFIA (dpa-AFX) - The bathing season opened on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast at the weekend. But the tourism industry is complaining about an acute shortage of staff. Many Bulgarian cooks, waiters and chambermaids are now working in other vacation destinations because of the better pay. At the beginning of the summer season, there were also not enough lifeguards on Bulgaria's miles of sandy beaches.

"Our biggest problem now is that there is a shortage of workers," the acting tourism minister Ewtim Miloschew told state television BNT a few days before the start of the season. Employees from Nepal, Kyrgyzstan, India and Bangladesh were expected as a way out. The minister explained that he was in talks with the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry to send officials to the respective consulates to help process work applications.

The situation for lifeguards on Bulgaria's sandy beaches is no better. "The problem remains, especially for the months of July and August," complains one lifeguard manager, according to a report by the BGNES news agency.

Tourism is important for the poorest EU country in terms of per capita economic output. In the strongest years, the sector accounts for 13 percent of gross domestic product. In 2023, however, the record result of 12.5 million foreign tourists from the pre-Covid year 2019 could not be surpassed by far.

The tourism industry is expecting a better summer season in 2024 than in the previous year. Marketing consultant Konstantin Sankov expects ten percent more tourists than in 2023. However, the association of agencies that organize trips from abroad complains that interest from Germany remains relatively low.

Since the end of March 2024, there have been no more identity checks at the Balkan country's internal air and sea borders with other Schengen states. This will save time at the airports for anyone wanting to go on vacation to the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, for example./el/DP/stw