Three Unlawful Establishments Found at Beach Near Varna

Inspections at Cabacum-Central beach near Bulgaria’s Black Sea coastal city of Varna on 10^th of July found that three establishments were committing illegal commercial activity. Bulgaria’s Minister of Tourism Nikolina Angelkova, who participated in the inspections, said that the Municipality of Varna and the Regional Construction Control were informed to take action.

Last year, the contract with the former beach tenant was terminated due to a number of violations found, and a new concessionaire had been elected. However, he does not manage the strip yet because the bid is being appealed by one of the bidders. Thus, the Cabacum-Central beach is classified as unprotected.

“In this case, there should not be any commercial activity”, the Minister of Tourism said.

After receiving signals that the establishments are working, the ministry has appealed to the Directorate for Regional Construction Control and the Municipality of Varna to take immediate action. They must demolish the establishments or stop the supply of electricity and water in order to prevent commercial activity. We have given a seven-day deadline for doing this, and everyone should be aware that they must respect the laws of the country, said Angelkova. When the court proceedings are completed, the new concessionaire will be contracted, and commercial activity may resume.

Angelkova reminds that regular inspections of establishments and their contracts will continue across the whole Black Sea coast over the summer.

Since last year, due to the initiative of the Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, the Coordination Center is actively working together with the Ministry of Interior (MoI), National Revenue Agency (NRA), the Prosecutor’s Office, Customs, and other controlling authorities to ensure that everyone in the area respects the law.

Angelkova provides the recent inspection of Obzor-Motel beach as an example. There, the inspectors found a property adjacent to the beach with signs stating “private property” and “private beach.” We have informed the authorities and there will soon be an examination with geodetic instruments, added Angelkova.

With regards to the case of Nestinarka Beach, the Minister stressed again that the prices of umbrellas and sun beds should be stated clearly, as outlined in the contracts with the beach owners. There are no laws against offering other optional beach accessories, however, they mustn’t be made mandatory in any way for the beach goers. The Ministry of Tourism has already asked the concessionaire to place special price tags for any such additional products and services to inform that they are not mandatory.

So far, the season has been very successful, claims Nikolina Angelkova, with the interest of Russian tourists in Bulgaria raising by 15% and that of German tourists raising by 15-20%. She drew attention to the measures being taken by the Ministry to improve the quality of the tourism in Bulgaria, because this will determine whether foreign interest will be further encouraged.

In response to questions about security in the seaside resorts, Minister Angelkova has stressed that she is in constant contact with Interior Minister Valentin Radev to provide enough law enforcement, especially in the larger resorts. There are already mounted police officers, officers on bicycles, as well as mixed teams with Bulgarian and foreign police officers patrolling the areas.