Bulgaria and Serbia Will Jointly Promote Themselves through a Common Balkan Product

Bulgaria and Serbia to jointly promote themselves through a common Balkan product on third markets. This is what the Minister of Tourism Dr. Ilin Dimitrov proposed to his Serbian counterpart Husein Memic during their meeting in Serbia. Serbian Minister of Tourism and Youth Memic agreed with the proposal and expressed the opinion that advertising the two countries together would attract more tourists.

Minister Dimitrov's talks with the Serbian minister in Belgrade are part of his two-day visit to our western neighbour. Among the topics were the opportunities for tourism businesses to be supported by the state institutions of both countries to strengthen their partnership. 

Minister Dimitrov invited his colleague to visit Bulgaria at the end of May this year, when our country will host the 68th session of the Regional Commission for Europe of the World Tourism Organization. The voting of the vacant seats in the Europe region by the members of the Executive Board of the UNWTO for the period 2023—2027 is also scheduled for then. For his part, Minister Dimitrov assured his counterpart that Bulgaria is ready to support Serbia's candidacy, and Belgrade in particular, to host EXPO 2027.

The focus of the meeting was on the opportunities for more active cooperation under the INTERREG 2021—2027 programme and ERASMUS+. Bulgaria and Serbia have agreed to exchange lists of influencers to promote both countries online as well.

Serbia is traditionally the fourth most popular destination for Bulgarians after Turkey, Greece and Romania. Tourist flows are balanced, statistics shows, with each country sending half a million tourists to the other on an annual basis in the periods before the pandemic. Sofia, Bansko, followed by Nessebar, Plovdiv, Varna and Samokov are the most popular destinations for Serbian tourists in recent times.