Minister Angelkova: The Bulgarian-Russian relations in tourism are developing very successfully

Minister Angelkova pointed out that Russia is one of the strategic tourist markets for Bulgaria and announced that for the period January-July 2017, the tourists from the Russian Federation in Bulgaria were nearly 365 thousand, which is a 2% growth compared to the same period last year. Only in July Russia was second in the ranking for inbound tourism with a total of 155 thousand visits. In 2016, Bulgaria received the award of National Geographic Travel - Russia for the best destination for family vacations of the Russian tourists. Nikolina Angelkova emphasized that the ministry is working very successfully with the tourist administrations not only of Moscow, but also of a number of Russian regions, particularly the Ural region.   

Oleg Safonov thanked the Bulgarian government and personally the Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and Minister Angelkova for the rapid reaction when force majeure occurred with Russian children in some children camps on the Black Sea Coast. The case is from July, when after the sudden death of the owner of “Chavdar” cmp in the village of Obzor, It turned out that his bank accounts were empty. Then with the assistance of the Prime Minister Borisov and the urgent visit and intervention of Minister Angelkova, the vacation of the children was continued according to plan, even other planned groups were accepted. The competent authorities worked effectively and the children spent their holiday very well and returned to their country without further problems, Safonov explained.

Minister Angelkova affirmed that apart from the mass forms of tourism, both countries have great potential for successful development of the balneology, SPA and religious tourism. Jointly with the Russian partners we begin the development of pilgrimage tours. In October a conference will be held in Varna with the participation of Russian representatives, where the cooperation in the filed of pilgrimage and cultural-historical tourism will be discussed, as it became clear from the Minister’s words. Another joint conference will be held to discuss these matters at the exhibition “Intourmarket” in Moscow. Exhibitions will be made in Moscow and Sankt-Petersburg within the Days of Bulgaria event, she added.

We will also expand our partnership for the development of the tourism for children and sanatorium-and-health-resort tourism, which is traditionally very popular in Russia and the country is a partner of the European SPA Association. The prospects for the attraction of more disabled people and athletes for treatment, rehabilitation and physical training in Bulgaria, are very good, explained Nikolina Angelkova. She stressed the importance of the growing Russian investments in Bulgaria and gave an example with the unique for the entire Black Sea coast ice rink in the village of Kranevo, which wonderfully combines summer and winter tourism with swimming sports.

Oleg Safonov expressed satisfaction that the Bulgarian Black Sea is very clean and offers wonderful conditions for recreation. Unlike other countries, there is no rotavirus and the country is known among the Russians as a quiet and safe destination. This can be attributed to the efforts of the government for ensuring the calm stay of the tourists and water treatment plants, summarized Minister Angelkova. She invited her interlocutor to visit our country again and to get acquainted in more detail with the conditions for recreation and journeys.