September 29 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian seaside resort Albena, owned by local hotel operator Albena [BUL:6AB], ended this year's summer season at a loss due to the coronavirus crisis, local media reported.
This is the first ever loss for the resort at the end of the season.
Tourist overnights at the Albena resort, located on Bulgaria's northern Black Sea coast, totalled 365,000 this summer season, compared to 1.5 million in the same period of 2019, public radio BNR reported on Monday.
The resort was hit mainly by the cancellations of bookings by German tourists, after Germany declared Bulgaria's northeastern region of Dobrich where the resort is located an unsafe destination in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, BNR said.
The drop in the number of tourists from Germany resulted in a loss of some 6 million levs ($3.6 million/3.1 million euro) in expected revenue this year, BNR quoted Krasimir Stanev, executive director at Albena hotel operator, as saying.
By the end of the year the resort will receive about 4 million levs in anti-crisis support under the government's job retention measure, Stanev added.
Earlier this month, Albena said that its consolidated net loss narrowed to 19.3 million levs in the first half of 2020 from 21.5 million levs in the comparable period of last year. The company's revenue plunged to 8.3 million levs in the first six months of the year, from 27.2 million levs in the like period of 2019.
In August, Albena started to shut down hotels in the resort as the coronavirus pandemic caused a drastic drop in the number of visitors. The company plans to wind down operations in at least 20 of its hotels, starting August 10, local news outlet Mediapool reported back then.
As at 13:22 CET on Tuesday, Albena's shares traded flat at 22.60 levs on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)