Bulgaria and Greece have signed a Joint Action Programme for the period 2016 - 2018 in the field of tourism

The Minister of Tourism of the Republic of Bulgaria Nikolina Angelkova and the Minister of Economy, Development and Tourism of the Republic of Greece Giorgos Stathakis signed a Joint Action Programme for the period 2016 - 2018 for action in the field of tourism. This happened within the intergovernmental meeting that was held today in Sofia. Earlier both ministers met in a bilateral meeting.

“Traditionally Bulgaria is visited by many Greek tourists and many Bulgarians choose Greece as their holiday destination. Therefore, it is of mutual interest to further enhance our cooperation and to undertake even more joint initiatives”, Minister Angelkova said.

She acquainted her Greek colleague with the event organized by Bulgaria and the World Tourism Organization in Sofia in the period 29 November - 1 December. Minister Stathakis promised to personally attend the event, if possible, otherwise the forum will be attended by the responsible Deputy Minister. Both ministers discussed the opportunities for exchange of experience in the tourism sector and more specifically in the improvement of the regulatory framework and staff training in the branch of tourism.

Greek tourists mainly come to Bulgaria for winter tourism, while the Bulgarian tourists prefer to go to Greece in the summer. For the past year, 972,971 Greeks visited Bulgaria (for tourism purposes) and 1,043,078 Bulgarians visited Greece. The positive data were preserved in the first 6 months of 2016, when over 520 thousand Greeks were in Bulgaria and around 515 thousand Bulgarians visited our southern neighbour.

Both ministers agreed to resume the talks in September at expert level and to prepare a Memorandum with specific topics and commitments for enhancing the cooperation. These include exchange of experience for the diversification of the touristic product and development of a mutual touristic product for remote markets with an emphasis on the cultural and religious tourism.