17. State of small and medium hospitality enterprises in Bulgaria

Author: Ivanka Lulcheva

DOI: n/a

Resume

The EU policy for formation of a stable middle class standard of living is associated with the sustainable development of family business, including small and medium companies.
Small and medium-sized companies in Bulgaria play a major role in the tourism development in the country.
To determine the status of small and medium tourism enterprises indicators, the following criteria are used: revenue, cost, cost structure for operating activities; labour productivity, expressed through: number of tourists served by one employee; revenue per employee in the tourist development; value added per employee; profit per employee, return on fixed assets; profitability of production.
Conclusions of a specific practical significance are formulated. These are: small and medium-sized enterprises play a major economic role in creating jobs, help to reduce unemployment, generate revenue and contribute to the sustainable development of the regions; despite the high investment activity of small and medium-sized enterprises, the return on fixed assets in small and medium-sized tourism enterprises is poor, and for micro-enterprises – negative; beds usability in twenty-four-hour periods is about 35%, which is unsatisfactory and requires special actions from managers of individual hotels and government policies in this sector; achieved level of labour productivity in small and medium-sized enterprises is unsatisfactory. All indicators for measuring labour productivity show a very low level of labour productivity in micro-enterprises.
The reason for this is the significantly lower qualifications of the employees and the technological level. This is an indication of the still low competitiveness of these tourism enterprises; with the increasing amount of tourist development the profitability of the „production“ of the tourism product increases.