Bulgaria Expects Grave Consequences from Thomas Cook Collapse

23.9.2019
Sofia, September 23 (BTA) - The failure of tour operator Thomas Cook will cause grave consequences for the 2020 season in Bulgaria, Tourism Minister Nikola Angelkova said here Monday. She was speaking at a news briefing she held after the announcement of Thomas Cook's collapse. She said the risk is for everybody working with Thomas Cook. Astral Holidays is the Bulgarian company through which Thomas Cook has been working in this country. The tourists who Thomas Cook brings every summer to Bulgaria vary between 350,000 and 450,000, said the Minister. Last year Bulgaria was visited by a total of over 9.2 million foreign tourists. Some 2,500 Thomas Cook clients are stranded in Bulgaria at the moment, according to British Embassy figures. A working meeting is scheduled for Tuesday with the participation of hotel owners and tour operators working with Thomas Cook, as well as the British Embassy and the consumer protection watchdog, to discuss the possible ramifications from the Thomas Cook collapse, said Angelkova. She said that her Ministry got in contact with the Thomas Cook management on September 20. The British Civil Aviation Authority has sent the Tourism Ministry a special form which will be forwarded to all 6,000 Bulgarian hotels working with Thomas Cook, and based on this form they will be able to claim all due payments and cover their costs. Speaking to BTA, the head of the Institute for Analyses and Assessment in Tourism, Roumen Draganov, said the Thomas Cook failure is a major event which will hit hard the Bulgarian tourism, because the company accounts for over half of the flights to and from the Bulgarian Black Sea airports of Varna and Bourgas. He explained that the adverse effect will go two ways. On the one hand, Thomas Cook owes a lot to Bulgarian hotels because payments for overnights are made 60 days after the stay, which means that payments are due for July and August. On the other hand, planned late-season vacations will be cancelled as will be the contracts for 2020. He warned that if the German branch of Thomas Cook collapses as well, there will be a chain of failures which will cause a chaos across the world. Source: Sofia, http://www.bta.bg/en/c/DF/id/2079343