The 15th of March is the World Consumer Rights Day

On 15 March we mark the World Consumer Rights Day, announced by the UN General Assembly. The initiative focuses on the importance of consumer rights in the choice of goods and services and on civic intolerance to market abuses and unfair competition.  

On this day 54 years ago, in an emotional speech President John Kennedy for the first time formulated the fundamental rights of consumers – the rights to safety, to be informed, to choose, and the right to be heard. Later on other rights were added – the right to satisfaction of basic needs of consumers; the right to redress; the right to education; and the right to a healthy environment. Namely these eight postulates are laid down in the Guidelines for Consumer Protection adopted by UN.  

With dynamic developments in globalization, digitalization and free movement of people and goods all over the world the importance of consumer rights protection has been drawing greater attention. Consumers in the European Union also receive more and more powers: for education in the issues of their protection, absence of misleading advertising, repair and replacement of defective goods, contracts without unfair clauses, return of goods, free help, etc., and the right to more IT services to the benefit of clients.

The tourism sector is instrumental to global development and is one of the sectors with the greatest number of consumers who are getting ever more demanding and active. The tourist industry has been growing faster over the last decades and was one of the leading global socio-economic sectors that survived in the general crises. According to the forecasts of the UN World Tourism Organization, the number of international tourists will continue rising at an annual rate of 3.3% until 2030 while in 2015 tourists numbered about 1.24 billion persons.

Bulgaria is also one of the countries with most dynamic tourism development and growing number of users of that type of services. The country reported an increasing number of Bulgarian and foreign tourists. Based on information from the Commission for Consumer Protection, their rights are respected more responsibly by business and the number of administrative breaches in the sector has steadily declined. The National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria announced that in 2016 about 7.2 million persons used accommodation facilities with minimum 10 beds, up by 14% compared with 2015, and revenues from such overnights have risen by some 19% compared with last year. According to NSI, in 2016 about 3,331 accommodation facilities with minimum 10 beds operated in the country. 

The year 2016 marked records in the history of Bulgarian tourism industry. Based on data of the National Statistical Institute, the total number of foreign tourists’ trips to Bulgaria in the past year was 8,251,995, marking over a 16% growth compared with 2015 (an increase by over 1.1 million trips), and almost all generating markets reported growth. Revenue data on 2016 is very good. Revenues from international tourism in the balance of payments current account, based on BNB data, amount to some EUR 3.3 billion, about 16% higher than in 2015.

These facts confirm that more and more tourists choose Bulgaria as a place for their vacation and journey as they can find here wonderful natural and cultural-historical sites as well as safety and loyal services. Early bookings and the higher number of planned flights to Bulgaria outline even higher indicators for this year, which was announced by the UN World Tourism Organization as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development.