Nikolina Angelkova and Oleg Safonov opened the Bulgarian stand at one of the biggest exhibitions on the Russian market – Inturmarket in Moscow

A 30% growth in the bookings for Bulgaria has been noted, according to data of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia,

Bulgaria is located in one of the most central places at one of the biggest travel exhibitions on the Russian market – Inturmarket, which is held from 19^th to 22^nd March. Our stand was the first one visited by the head of the Federal Agency for Tourism of Russia, Oleg Safonov. He held a meeting with Bulgaria’s Minister of Tourism, Nikolina Angelkova, and both of them greeted together the participants at the Bulgarian stand. The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Bulgaria to the Russian Federation, Boiko Kotsev, took part in the talks, too.

‘The Bulgarian business reports an ever increasing interest on the part of Russia and the intensive meetings and common initiatives we have undertaken during the last year have already produced results’, Minister Angelkova said. The two of them discussed the possibilities for more ambitious presentation of the Bulgarian products and the results so far have shown an increased interest in some segments, reaching up to 30%. Oleg Safonov pointed out that all this was due to the joint efforts and the dynamic actions of our country, as well as to the good cooperation with the Bulgarian Minister for Tourism. Ambassador Kotsev declared that a very good organisation of work was created at the Bulgarian embassy and that visas for Russian citizens were obtained as soon as possible.

A tourist fair for presentation of Bulgaria will be organised in the centre of Moscow in June. This was agreed at a meeting of Minister Angelkova, Oleg Safonov and Vladimir Chernikov, Head of the Department of National Policy, Inter-Regional Relations and Tourism of the city of Moscow. The Russian part will assist in providing a central location in the capital, where we will be able to present outdoors the tourist opportunities offered by the country.

Data of growing demand of Bulgaria on the Russian tourist market were confirmed by Maia Lomidze, president of the Association of Russian Tour Operators, who had a talk with Minister Angelkova, too. According to her, as of now a 30% increase in early bookings for our country has been observed and many tour operators who have worked on other markets so far have started redirecting themselves to it. As of now, 30 new tour operators have applied for accreditation for work with Bulgaria.

Minister Angelkova informed that there was also a growing interest in the specialised telephone that was opened at the beginning of February for the Russian market. So far, inquiries on it have been oriented mostly to details of routes, prices of services, offers for cultural-cognitive tourism, etc. Russian customers show a growing interest not only in the traditional forms of mass tourism, summer and winter, but also in specialised offers – balneal, spa, festival, pedestrian, golf, gourmet, eco-, rural tourism, etc.

Minister Angelkova also participated in the opening of the travel market and during the exhibition a special forum was organised for presenting the possibilities for tourism in our country. Efforts in this direction are actively supported by the exhibition organisers, where monitors in all the halls of the expo centre show pictures of Bulgaria. Information about our ountry is also broadcast through the travel market audio system. Our stand is the first thing a visitor can see on entering the expo centre. That is why boys and girls in authentic Bulgarian costumes meet the guests at the forum with bread and salt.

Our animation programme includes also Bulgarian wine tasting and folk performances, as well as demonstration of techniques in icon-painting, carpet-weaving and traditional embroidery. The municipalities of Nesebar and Kavarna, as well as the Sanatorium and Health Complex ‘Kamchia’ participate in our national stand, which covers an area of 104 sq. m, organised by the Ministry of Tourism.

Inturmarket is organised with the assistance of the Federal Agency for Air Transport, the Russian Hotel Association and other lead structures in the sector. In 2015, 1450 companies from 138 countries and all Russian regions participated and the visitors were more than 80 000. Bulgaria is presented at the exhibition for the 11^th consecutive year.