Bulgarian Govt Hopes for Modest Growth of British Tourists

The Bulgarian pavilion at the World Travel Market expo in London 2010. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria hopes to see a 2-3% increase in the number of UK tourists visiting the country in the next 12 months, according to a senior government official.

According to Bulgaria's Deputy Economy Minister Ivo Marinov, who is in charge of tourism, the government's hopes for more British tourists are actually a bit more modest than the forecasts of the private sector.

"Our forecast is for a maximum growth of 2-3% of the number of Brits visiting Bulgaria as tourists. We are glad to see that the private companies forecast a growth of 5%," Marinov said at the World Travel Market expo in London where he went to open the Bulgarian pavilion.

Marinov emphasized the fact that even though Bulgaria generally seeks to advertise itself as a year-round tourist destination, at the 2010 World Travel Market expo in London, it sought to stress cultural and historical tourism as well as all other forms of alternative tourism.

"Summer and winter ski tourism are leading. This is what Bulgaria is known for but this doesn't mean that we won't work to target the market with the other kinds of tourism since they are year-round, and they generate a greater added value. The trends on the British market after the crisis point that these special kinds of tourism such as cultural tourism and spa tourism will enjoy rising demand," the Bulgarian Deputy Economy Minister explained.

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