Minister Angelkova had a working meeting with H.E. Hasan Ulusoy, the ambassador of the Republic of Turkey in Bulgaria

The Minister of Tourism Nikolina Angelkova had a working meeting with H.E. Hasan Ulusoy, the ambassador of the Republic of Turkey in Bulgaria. They both discussed the progress of the organization for establishing a working group involving experts from both countries, whose aim is to prepare a list of measures for stimulating the bilateral investments in the sphere of tourism and cooperation in the process of training people to be employed in tourism. The activity of the working group will also include joint popularization of the two neighbouring countries on distant markets. The establishment of the joint authority for cooperation was negotiated at the high-level meeting with the ministers of tourism which was held in Sofia in February under the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Minister Angelkova and Ambassador Ulusoy also discussed the preparation of the second edition of the “International Congress on World Civilizations and Ancient Routes”, which will be held in mid-November in Sofia. This event is organized by the Ministry of Tourism and the World Tourism organization and will also involve the CNN. The Turkish diplomat expressed the gratitude of the Minister of Tourism Mehmet Ersoy for the invitation to participate in the international forum.

Turkey is a leading market for inbound tourism for our country and I am glad that we have such fruitful cooperation, commented Minister Angelkova. They both talked about the possibilities to organize events at which the potential of cruise tourism will be discussed.

Turkey is in the top ten of the markets for inbound tourism for Bulgaria. Within the period January-July 2018, it ranks fourth with almost 380 thousand Turkish citizens visiting our country, which constitutes an increase of 7% compared to the same period of 2017. Last year, the number of the visits from Turkey exceeded 636 thousand and we can observe a rise of 12,5% compared to the previous year.