August 12 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian hotel operator Albena [BUL:6AB] has started to shut down hotels in its resort of the same name on the Black Sea coast, as the coronavirus pandemic has led to a drastic drop in the number of visitors, local media reported.
There were 8,000 guests staying at Albena resort last week, but their number has fallen to some 6,500 this week, public radio BNR quoted resort manager Hristo Penev as saying on Monday.
According to Penev, currently, there are no active coronavirus cases on the territory of the resort located in Dobrich region.
The drop in tourist numbers at Albena is the result of the suspension of charter flights to Bulgaria as well as last week's decision of Germany to declare Bulgaria's northeastern regions of Varna and Dobrich an unsafe destination in the context of the pandemic, BNR said.
Albena plans to wind down operations in at least 20 of its hotels in the following days, starting August 10, local news outlet Mediapool quoted Krasimir Stanev, executive director at the company, as saying earlier this week.
On an annual comparison basis, tourist numbers at the resort dropped by 50% in August, while the number of employees declined by 80%, Stanev noted.
At the end of last month, Albena said that its non-consolidated net loss narrowed to 13.8 million levs ($8.3 million/7.1 million euro) in the first half of 2020 from 14.8 million levs in the comparable period of last year, while its revenue slumped to 4.1 levs from 21.5 million levs.
As at 14:11 CET on Wednesday, Albena shares traded flat at 24.8 levs on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)