Blagoy Ragin, Chairman of the Bulgarian Hotel and Restaurant Association:

If a total smoking ban is introduced, in March 2013 we will count the survivors

  Mr. Ragin, on 1 April the Bulgarian Hotel and Restaurant Association organizes a happening associated with a protest against the introduction of a total smoking ban in restaurants. What provoked you to make this event and what is the current situation in the sector? This is an idea of our structures in Stara Zagora, Haskovo, Kurdzhali, Plovdiv and Sofia. These structures which are most concerned about the introduction of the total ban think that they will not be able economically to withstand the big crisis that pushed us. Two years ago we thought that in 2013 we will have forgotten about the crisis and the living condition of the Bulgarian people will increase, the purchasing power also and there will be more money in circulation and we will be able to easily survive the crisis. But you see that sometimes things do not happen as we want. We are an open economy and because we have less production, less consumption and lower gross domestic product, our economy runs on low speed and our prices are the lowest in EU. The costs for electricity and gas increase while the turnover of hotels and restaurants decreases and there is oversupply.