Minister Angelkova: We welcomed 5 million foreign tourists for summer 2016, which is an absolute record

27 October 2016

The aggregated data show that in the active summer season (June - September), Bulgaria has welcomed over 5 million foreign citizens. Their number is by over 18% greater compared to the same period in 2015. This was announced by Minister of Tourism Nikolina Angelkova during the press conference on the reporting of the summer season 2016, held today. The figures are based on data published by the National Statistical Institute and they confirm the trend that this has been the best summer season for the tourist sector.

Minister Angelkova informed that significant growth has been reported for this period in many markets: Germany - growth of 33%; Romania - 15%, Russia - 22%, Poland - 38%, Ukraine - 10%, Great Britain - 10%, Czech Republic - 38%, France - 19%, Israel - 16%, Austria - 20%, Netherlands - 34%, Belgium - 15% etc.

If we add the data from the periods immediately preceding and following the active season, we will see that for the period April - September, Bulgaria was visited by a total of 6 million foreigners, which is a 17% growth compared to the previous year. If the pace be preserved, not only summer 2016 will be a record, but also the entire year, she explained.

She pointed out that only for the first 9 months, Bulgaria was visited by nearly 7 million foreign nationals. Comparing with the entire 2015, our country was visited by nearly 7.1 million foreign tourists, i.e. the results for only the first three quarters approach the last year base. In her words, all this has favorably affected the revenues. According to the data of the BNB, revenues from international tourism in the current account of balance of payments for the first eight months of 2016 amount to over 4.7 billion BGN. This means that for the period January - August 2016, the revenues from international tourism are by 621 million BGN more compared to the same period of the preceding year, which is a 15% growth.

“For the first nine months of this year, the Bulgarians, who chose Bulgaria for their summer vacation, are nearly 2.9 million”, added Minister Angelkova. Compared to the same period of 2015, there is a growth of 8%, but only for the summer, in the period April - September 2016, the Bulgarian tourists in Bulgaria rose by more than 7 % (in 2015 they were 1,992,815 and in 2016 they were 2,136,676, which is a difference of 143,861).

If we sum up the figures of the foreign and Bulgarian tourist flow, we can see that the Bulgarian tourist sector has welcomed and serviced a total of about 10 million tourists for the first 9 months of the year, summarized Nikolina Angelkova.

The minister emphasized, that the ministry is working for the next summer season 2017. “I have had meetings with some of the biggest tour operators such as Thomas Cook and TUI, which forecast an increase of around 30% for the next year according to their programmes”, announced the Minister of Tourism. This is an unprecedented volume and record since the beginning of the companies’ operations on the Bulgarian market, which means that Bulgaria becomes more and more competitive and a preferred destination for many countries worldwide.

In response to a journalist’s question, Minister Angelkova said that from the beginning of the year the ministry experts have carried out nearly 1,000 inspections of categorized accommodation and catering facilities, and only for the active summer season the inspections were 550. As a result of these inspections, a procedure has been started for the taking away of one star from hotels that do not comply with the requirements of the Ordinance on the requirements to accommodation, catering and entertainment facilities and the procedure for establishing the category, refusal, lowering the category, suspension or termination of the category. She further emphasized that the purpose of the inspections is to guarantee the quality of the tourist product.

Facebook icon
Twitter icon
Google icon
e-mail icon