Bulgaria News

Bulgarian tourist numbers up

16 October 2006

Close to 4 million foreign tourists will have visited Bulgaria by the end of the year according to the State Tourism Agency. Despite Bulgarian tour operators such as Balkan Holidays reporting a slow start to the 2006 season, largely due to the football World Cup, official figures show arrivals between January and September were up 5.8% on the same period last year, with the Black Sea resort of Sunny Beach reporting a record 300,000 visitors in August.

"Bulgaria is becoming a much better known holiday destination in Britain thanks to its high quality facilities and exceptional value for money," explains Chris Rand, marketing director of Balkan Holidays.

The country's progress was underlined by a recent survey by Opodo, an online travel company, which listed Bulgaria as its number one emerging travel destination for 2007.

By contrast, the far larger Turkish tourist industry has been hit by low bookings due to concerns about bird flu, instability in the Middle East and the recent resort bombings. Although official figures show a small recovery for August, resorts and hotels have been quiet with tourist numbers expected to be well down on the government’s target of 26 million visitors for the year. Tourism is an important source of foreign exchange earning the country $18 billion in 2005.