Bulgaria’s hospitality industry is once again facing an alarming shortage of staffers ahead of the summer season after struggling to fill as many as 3,000 vacancies last year.

The lack of trained staffers is especially acute in the high-end hotel industry. No less than 130 new tourist facilities will open for business along Bulgaria’s Northern Black Sea coast this summer while the five-star bed capacity will increase by 1,200.

A total of 4.01 million were the tourists in Bulgaria in 2004 thus marking an increase of 13.6% year on year. Most of the tourists came from Greece (707, 000), Macedonia (656,000), Serbia and Montenegro (577,000), Germany (565,000), the UK (259,000) and Russia (121,000).