Malaysia shows interest in Bulgarian ski and spa resorts

Minister of Tourism Ilin Dimitrov, PhD, held a meeting with a representative of one of the leading and largest tour operators “Asian Overland Services”. The meeting with Mr. Nur Ismail was initiated by the Honorary Consul of Malaysia in Bulgaria Mr. Peter Kouroumbashev.

For consumers from distant destinations such as Malaysia, Bulgaria is part of Europe and the Balkans and can be seen as part of a combined tourism product that we are discussing with neighboring Greece and Türkiye, Minister Dimitrov said.

"Bulgaria needs to open up to distant markets and the successful formula for this is the creation of a common Balkan product," Minister Dimitrov said.

In this context, Nur Ismail said that Malaysia has traditionally close ties with Türkiye, often choosing it as a preferred destination and the logistical possibilities of the megalopolis of Istanbul can contribute to increasing tourism to Bulgaria.

According to the guest, the Malaysians, who have an extremely diverse nature and a sufficiently developed market of sea tourism, Bulgaria is an interesting destination with its winter resorts. “On their bucket list, every Malaysian wants to go on a skiing holiday at least once in their lifetime,” Nur Ismail said. In response, Minister Dimitrov gave the example of Bansko as an established and preferred European winter resort and added that Bulgaria is second in Europe in the number of mineral springs, our services in spa tourism are world-class and are also a good reason to choose a holiday in Bulgaria.

Malaysia is one of the preferred by Bulgarians destinations for high-end holidays and this builds a good foundation for the development of bilateral relations in tourism, said the Honorary Consul of the Asian country in Bulgaria. In 2019, there were nearly 3.6 thousand visits of Bulgarian tourists to Malaysia. At the same time, the representative of the tour operator company pointed to the months of March and September as preferred for travel and as periods in which significant tourist events are organized in Malaysia.

According to Minister Dimitrov, there is a good potential in the exchange of professional experience and personnel between the two countries, and this will lead to an intensification of bilateral contacts and travel.