Hoteliers: State owes us hundreds of thousands of BGN for accommodation and food for Ukrainian refugees

Hoteliers on the Northern Black Sea coast claimed that the state owes them hundreds of thousands of BGN for accommodation and food for refugees from Ukraine. The sums have accumulated since the beginning of the refugee wave. They have also been left disappointed, having received only up to 25% of the sums owed for the month of July. The Ministry of Tourism said that this was only the first payment, but there would be others.

One of the hotels in Kranevo accommodated 130 refugees. The manager says the state owes him nearly 200,000 BGN for accommodation and food.

"For April I have 4 unpaid stays, for June I have 501. For the month of July, I have 4,895 unrecognized stays," says Stanislav Dimitrov, manager of a hotel in the village of. Kranevo.

Hoteliers are worried that they cannot pay their bills and may go bankrupt.

"There are over 100,000 BGN that have not been paid at the moment," says Peter Maldzhiev, manager of a hotel in the coastal village of Kranevo.

"The problem is that we don't know where this cut is coming from," says Stanislav Dimitrov, manager of a hotel in the village of Kranevo.

The Ministry of Tourism said that the nights for July were cut because the first list did not process all the applications.

"The discrepancies, according to their expectations, are due to the fact that there was a poor and insufficiently fast processing of the declarations for meals that are submitted. But this happens because we collect information from 5 departments," said Maria Petrova, head of the policy office of the caretaker tourism minister.

Some hoteliers rely entirely on the humanitarian programme to accommodate refugees and do not accept tourists.

The humanitarian programme to help refugees from Ukraine has been extended until the end of October. After that, there is no clarity on the fate of Ukrainians in this country.

The Ministry of Tourism said that there are approved additional payments for hoteliers for June and July for a total of nearly 4 and a half million BGN. By the end of the month the disputed declarations will be examined and another supplementary payment for the two months is due.