Stela Kasabova
Studying the Competitiveness of Tourism Business in the Republic of Bulgaria (Evaluation of the Differences of the Services Offered)
Summary:
Maintaining high competitiveness in tourism business (hotel business, in particular) contributes both to the long-term development and management of regions and to the sustainable and competitive development of regional tourist destination. The article deals with issues related to the competitiveness of tourism in Bulgaria by evaluating the hotel services offered to holidaymakers. The results are obtained based on a survey of four hotels (located on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast), conducted in August 2012. The article consists of three parts: socio-demographic characteristics of surveyed tourists; evaluation of the quality of services offered in hotels (reception services, evaluation of the rooms and restaurant in the respective hotel, and evaluation of nine types of services); evaluation of the differences in the services offered by hotels. The results of the study are that the "strong" and "weak" points are defined by types of services according to the opinion of the tourists interviewed. The emphasis is on improving the weak points and how to improve the characteristics of these indicators for the four hotels.
