[size=55:ovoqezp3]Sofia Echo

Sobering up

Fed up with the bad image lent to Bulgaria by resorts plagued by drunken and rowdy foreign tourists who come to drink themselves silly on cheap booze, a group of hoteliers want to "
blacklist"
tour operators who organise alcohol tourism trips.

This summer season, excessive drinking has been more than an annoyance. In a few cases, overdoing it has led to deaths, reportedly when foreign visitors fell from hotel balconies after heavy drinking bouts.

According to a report in Bulgarian-language mass-circulation daily 24 Chassa, the list of tour operators that Sunny Beach hotels will refuse to have dealings with includes small-scale firms from the United Kingdom, Germany and Scandinavia.

Vesselin Nalbantov, a member of the board of the Bulgarian Hotel and Restaurant Association, said that there should be tougher penalties for breaches of the peace – and that travel agencies abroad should pass on the message that those behaving badly in public will be dealt with severely.

The Varna Tourism Chamber said that Bulgaria should follow the example of Turkey in refusing to work with companies that bring visitors on drinking sprees.

The "
alcohol tourism"
syndrome has had extensive coverage in Bulgarian-language media in recent weeks. A report on a cable television station showed a young foreign tourist, hardly able to stand, vomiting into a flowerbed while another, a British woman, when approached by the camera, turned around and bent over to waggle her thong-covered derriere at the lens.

According to 24 Chassa, local representatives of large tour companies such as Thomas Cook and TUI supported the initiative against firms who organised alcohol tourism.

But Tsvetan Tonchev, chairperson of the Bulgarian Tourist Chamber, was skeptical about the initiative, saying that "
alcohol tourism"
was a locally-invented term and in reality, no tour company offered such tours. Speaking to local news agency Focus, he hinted that the hotels in Sunny Beach that were involved were just trying to make themselves look good after bad publicity about incidents at their establishments.

Tonchev said that Bulgaria should offer foreign tourists a mix of activities and alternatives such as cultural tourism and eco-tourism.

"
We cannot become a sanatorium, but only a mixture between relaxation and recreation."


He said that there were people who came on holiday to drink and take drugs, but this was related to the way things were in Europe. "
There are people, discontent with their lives, who have a totally different idea of tourism in their minds,"
Tonchev said.

However, some local media said that it was not only foreigners who were drinking excessively. Varna-based website moreto.net quoted the Georgi Matev, head of the intensive card ward in Bourgas, as saying, "
the tense lifestyles of Bulgarians are having an impact. We are used to treating foreigners for alcohol poisoning but the number of Bulgarians who become our patients after summer drinking parties is on the rise"
.

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Crackdown on Bulgaria Booze-Fests

Well, at least for Europeans who want to go on organized drinking tours in Bulgaria.

Seems "
alcohol tourism"
has gotten a little out of control in the country due to British, German and Scandinavian tour companies promoting heavy drinking vacation packages. Cheap alcohol prices and lax regulations have made Eastern Europe, and especially Bulgaria, the current hot spot for stag (bachelor) parties from Western Europe.

But after several recent incidents of tourists falling to their deaths from hotel balconies after nights out drinking, the Bulgarian Hotel Association has had enough. So they've decided to boycott the tour operators in hopes they will take their debauchery elsewhere.

Drinking tours are popular throughout the world, with companies like Thirsty Swagman offering around the world pub crawls or "
drinking adventures"
in Asia, Europe, and the US. Plus, you can easily find a local drinking tour in most places known for their wine or beer, such as Tour Dublin or Luhambo Tours in Cape Town.

But some people think the pre-planned alcohol tours are getting to be a bit too much not only Bulgaria, but also Turkey, where hotels decided to no longer deal with companies promoting the raging parties.

This might also have to do with a recent documentary airing in Britain. Booze Britain focuses on the out-of-control drinking that happens on holiday in these Eastern European countries (along with at home), and the ramifications of cheap and widely available alcohol.

Somehow, we think the companies will make their way around the restrictions.