Bulgaria Starts Major Tourism Promotion Drive via European TV Channels

Bulgaria has launched a large-scale promotion of its resorts and tourist sites via four pan-European TV channels as part of steps to make up for a drop in the number of visitors from Russia and Ukraine.

Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova said on Thursday increased interest from tourists from Austria, Germany and France is expected as a result of the EUR 2.5 M (VAT excluded) promotion campaign funded through the European Union’s Operational Programme Regional Development.

Eurosport, Euronews, Discovery Channel and National Geographic Channel have already begun airing TV spots, including one focusing on Bulgaria's cultural heritage and historic sites. The four channels cover Europe’s territory, as well as parts of the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

The ad spots, each with duration of 30 seconds, will be aired in the channels’ prime time in German, French, English, Spanish, Russian and Bulgarian in three waves of eight weeks each in 2014.

Europe is a primary target market for the promotion campaign, the Tourism Ministry said in a statement. The number of tourists from other EU member states visiting Bulgaria increased by 6.1% last year, reaching about 4.5 million or more than 60% of the total, according to official Bulgarian statistics.

Bulgarian tour operators expect the number of visitors from Poland to grow by six or seven percent and those from the Czech Republic to increase by five or six percent this summer, Angelkova said.

An increase is also expected in the number of visitors from neighbouring Turkey and Greece (+10%), Serbia (+2%) and Macedonia (+3%). Tourists from Belarus are expected to increase by about five percent, while the number of visitors from Latvia, Lithuania and Moldova is projected to rise by about 40% each.

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