The Minister of Tourism, Nikolina Angelkova, took part in a Tourism & Exports discussion, a part of the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum

The Minister of Tourism, Nikolina Angelkova, took part in a Tourism & Exports discussion, a part of the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum. Official guests of the event included, among others, Oleg Safonov, head of the Federal Tourism Agency (Rosturism), Petar Ivanov, Director General of the Federal Passenger Company; Ruslan Novikov, Director General of the Argumenti & Fakti company.

Russia is key to Bulgaria in terms of tourism, so it is crucial for us to have not just partnership relations, but ones of close friends, in order to support bilateral development of the sector, indicated Minister Angelkova. The Russia market is among the key tourism-generating ones countries for our country. During the first three months of this year visits of Russian tourists to our country exceeded 27 000. Last year they were almost 558 000, with Russia ranking 5^th in terms of tourism visits in Bulgaria.

The minister added that a consistent policy is implemented to attract ever more Russian tourists, we are elaborating tailor-made products aligned to their demand. We are also working under a specific marketing campaign to promote the Bulgaria destination in Russia, she indicated further. There is also an active hotline at the Ministry of Tourism, where Russian guests in our country may obtain information or file a signal. All these efforts prove the significance of this market and I can assure you that we will keep working as intensively going forward, so that Bulgaria may become a magnetic destination for ever more trips of Russian nationals, stated Minister Angelkova.