Bulgaria Ski discussion board

So many posts this year talk about being 'ripped off' for various services and products in Bulgaria that it got me to thinking whether the accusations are really justified.
The people in and around the resorts - lke everyone else are looking to raise their standard of living and with a captive market it's hardly surprizing that inflation is affecting the ski resorts more and more.

But are we not as much to blame in the UK? Why does a bottle of Diet Coke cost me 95p in my local shop, but £1:45p at a motorway service station? Why can I buy Angie a dozen roses for her birthday for £4:99p but the identical bunch costs me £15 on Valentines Day?
Why do I pay £3:99 for a bottle of plonk in Morrisons when in a restaurant the same bottle costs £20? And a 1 litre of bottled water at Wembley will set you back £3.

It's all about supply and demand and the location and the surroundings, and whilst some prices are vastly more than we paid a few years ago, it's nothing more than what we would, and do do here given the chance.

Pete

Years ago, I used to feel guilty going to Bulgaria having so much when they had so little. We used to leave most of our clothes and the kids toys every trip. Things are improving for the majority of Bulgarians, thank goodness but they have had years of tourists (mainly English) acting like the Harry Enfield character 'Loadsa Money'. They have watched as tourists have happily and sometimes gleefully, spent more money in a week than they could earn in 10 years.

We have shown them how tourism can benefit their lives in many ways. Many Bulgarians see us as a Golden Goose but a few are greedy and are now trying to kill the goose. Bulgarians are generally a very proud, hard working nation but are also fighting being fleeced themselves. Many of the restaurants and bars are owned or pay rent to a small consortium of powerful men, add this to the cost of joining the EU and there's added pressure to some to pass the cost of trading in the ski resorts onto tourists.

There are signs of more free trade and a lessening of the stranglehold by a few. I feel this is a learning curve all developing countries have to go through and most Bulgarians are determined to improve the situation.

We don't have to be a captive market. We can take our custom elsewhere. I personally will continue to visit Bulgaria but will also explore further from the ski centre, where prices are more reasonable eg explore nearby towns and villages for quality restaurants and night life, with the added bonus of not having to watch or listen to embarrassing displays of loutish behaviour.

Things have changed but if you act sensibly, Bulgaria still has alot to offer for a reasonable cost.

Pete - you can delete this if you wish.

Sorry Pete but I really do think that you have missed the point a little here. Expensive advetised pricing is one thing but what people seem mainly concerned with (me included) are

- theft by adding unordered items to bills

- shoddy equipment badly set up and maintained

- theft by people who have a duty of trust

- an unresponsive police force

Now both Spain and Turkey have been through this before in terms of dealing with brit holiday makers and the Spanish solution was to set up a special police force in tourist areas to deal with tourist issues - possibly sometng BG should consider before especially Boro's reputation goes totally to pot.