Minister Angelkova: We have had a successful winter season

About 1.2 million foreign tourists have visited our winter resorts in the past winter season which makes for a growth of  8.2% compared to the same period of last year. This is what the Minister of Tourism Nikolina Angelkova said during a press conference. The Minister’s winter tourism advisor and five-time world alpine ski champion Marc Girardelli also attended the media brief. A work meeting with the concessionaires of the winter resorts, the lift operators and representative of the local authorities was held earlier that day to discuss relevant issues and statistics.  

Minister Angelkova stressed that according to data by the Bulgarian National bank, revenues from international tourism for the period December 2014-February 2015 amount to 640 million leva which is approximately a 6% growth compared to the previous winter season. “We’ve been pleasantly surprised by the inflow of Turkish tourists for which a growth of 30% has been registered.  No doubt this is partly due to the fast-tracking of the visa-issuing procedures for Turkish citizens that we introduced together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before the beginning of the season”, said Nikolina Angelkova. She added that a growth of tourists from Italy, Germany and Austria which are traditional markets for Bulgaria has also been registered – 20%, 10% and 8% respectively.

“At the end of the winter season, we can safely say that despite the apocalyptic forecasts the drop of Russian and Ukrainian tourists has been fully compensated for. Moreover, the EU member states continue to be the most important generating market for international tourism for Bulgaria with an approximate share of 50% and a total number of 600 000 tourists”, concluded Minister Angelkova.

She noted that the Ministry is actively working with Marc Girardelli on the strategy for the development of winter tourism in Bulgaria and that during the meeting with the concessionaires the priorities for all winter resorts, both big and smaller ones with high potential such as Berkovitsa, Kom, Uzana, Dobrinishte and others, were discussed.  

Mac Girardelli commented that our winter resorts are faced with similar problems that are primarily linked to the development of the infrastructure and the hurdles for building new facilities. He explained that Bulgaria has a value-for-money competitiveness, especially when it comes to children and youth and that the country should take full advantage of this.