Abstract:
Effective complaint handling in tourism has a positive impact in the form of building customer loyalty and generating financial benefits for tourism business. On the other hand, tourist complaints might be a major source of information for regulatory authorities about the state of tourism and the key areas that need to be improved. The regular collection and analysis of the information about the registered complaints is a useful practice for identifying problems and possible solutions in terms of implementation of tourism legislation. Complaint management in tourism business presumably has to be consistent with the legal framework in Bulgaria, and respectively in the European Union. The changing environment in which tourism business has to operate determines the need for update of tourism legislation, especially in the part relating to the protection of consumer rights. These changes are necessary due to the detection of some discrepancies in Bulgarian legislation which are to the detriment of travelers as well. The purpose of this article is to emphasize the need for change in the current legal framework in tourism. This will be achieved by highlighting the most common types of tourist complaints in Bulgaria; tracking the complaint handling procedures; revealing some restrictions affecting essentially consumer rights; reviewing the forthcoming harmonization with the newly- approved changes in the European tourism legislation and outlining some key principles which might serve as a base for a more effective complaint handling legal procedure.