site.btaBansko Hotel Manager: Foreign Group Were Typical Teenage Pranksters

Discussing an August 2 confrontation between a group of young foreigners and Bulgarians in the Bulgarian mountain resort of Bansko, Asen Levov, the manager of the hotel which housed the group of foreign children, told reporters on Wednesday that police had previously been called to the hotel on several occasions. Police officers were called to help calm the kids and deal with other problems they were causing, Levov said, adding that the incident which later attracted widespread attention was neither the first nor the only one.

The incident was initially reported by Italian media, which said the confrontation took place outside a hotel in Sofia and involved antisemitic acts against visiting Italian Jewish students. Bulgaria's Interior Ministry later clarified to BTA that the reports referred to a single incident that occurred in Bansko, not Sofia.

The hotel is located in central Bansko, close to a busy street. According to Levov, it regularly hosts large groups from around the world, including visitors from Israel.

"We have never had any problems with other Israeli groups, considering that over the past two months we have worked continuously and exclusively with such groups," the manager said.

The group that prompted repeated complaints to the police arrived in mid-July and checked out on August 3. It consisted of 200 children and 40 staff members organized by an Israeli organization running summer camps for children from around the world.

"What was different about this group was that it was simply too large, and it seemed the organizers were unable to keep it under control," Levov commented.

He added: "There were numerous occasions when we had to call the police ourselves to calm the group down. Even with the organizers and our own staff working together, we were unable to manage these children."

Referring to the incident that received extensive media coverage, the hotel manager said it took place on August 2, but noted that there had been previous incidents. According to Levov, it was common for the teenagers, after returning to their rooms in the evening, to lean out of the windows, shout to one another, yell at people passing in the streets around the hotel, and throw plastic cups and other objects.

Levov described their behaviour as "typical teenage pranks" and said such incidents should not be misrepresented. He stressed that the episode that became widely known was not the first. "This was a case of young people shouting at each other from balconies. They never even came face to face," he said.

According to Levov, the Bulgarian youths never crossed the threshold of the hotel or attempted to enter it.

"This was certainly not a case of a one-sided, malicious provocation by someone who happened to walk past the hotel or knew Israeli tourists were staying here and came specifically to cause trouble," he said, adding that no such incidents had occurred during previous visits by Israeli groups.

"I can say this not only on behalf of our hotel but of every hotel in Bansko, because Israeli tourists account for a significant share of the town's tourism," Levov added.

Commenting on the public reaction, he said that in the age of social media, "it only takes three or four provocative seconds taken from a video for something to gain global attention", adding that he believes this was the case here.

Earlier on Wednesday, Chief Inspector Hristiyan Parmakov, head of the Bansko District Police Department, said police had identified those involved in the confrontation between Bulgarian and foreign nationals in the resort town. He said the hotel manager had filed a report estimating the damage to the property at EUR 15,000.

Levov now showed reporters some of the damage during the briefing.

Also on Wednesday, Bansko Mayor Stoycho Banenski said the police and municipal authorities had responded appropriately to the incident involving the Italian Jewish students.