Lifting tobacco smoking ban could hinder not help Bulgaria’s tourism industry

Bulgaria’s National Tourism Board has warned that lifting the tobacco smoking ban in enclosed public places could result in a wave of reimbursement claims, according to a Novinite story quoting the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency.

Rumen Draganov, a member of the NTB, said the government should refrain from canceling the smoking ban for the time being.

Speaking after a meeting of representatives of the NTB and MPs of the center-right party GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria), he said that contracts had been signed with foreign tour operators for 4,800,000 holidays in 2014 and that 150,000 sales had been registered.

Draganov warned that any change to the terms of the contracts would give the other party a reason to claim compensation.

He suggested also that claims by those trying to have the smoking ban lifted that the tourism industry was in dire straits were untrue.

There were problems in the sector but these could not be laid at the feet of the introduction of the smoking ban, he added.