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Bulgaria's Winter Tourism Does Well, More Reliant on Balkan Countries

Tuesday, Apr 19, 2011

Bulgaria's winter and ski resorts will seek to attract more and more tourists from the Balkan states, according to experts who took part in a round table in Sofia Monday.

The round table was organized by the Ministry of Economy, Energy, and Tourism, which presented the results from the completed winter tourism season 2010-2011.

A total of 412 641 foreign tourists visit Bulgaria's winter and ski resorts, an increase of 6.9%. The total revenue from foreign tourists was EUR 204 M, a 2.3% increase year-on-year.

The most staggering increases came from the numbers of Balkan tourists and some of the more traditional source countries: Romania – 113 110 tourists, up 9.3%; Macedonia – 80 560, up 30.7%, Serbia – 47 901, up 28.1%; Turkey – 46 029, up 0.8%; Germany – 26 241, up 18.6%; Russia – 32 541, up 11.8%; Ukraine – 15 485, up 16.4%; France – 10 583, up 29.7%; Israel – 8 247, up 25.9%; USA – 6 629, up 13.7.

The tourists from Greece were 172 845, a decline of 5.2% year-on-year; the UK – 35 704, down 3%; Italy – 13 531 – down by 20.7%.

For the next winter tourism season, the Bulgarians ski resorts plan to invest heavily in artificial snow equipment in order to be able to extend the duration of the season. Some of the top resorts such as Bansko and Pamporovo has the ambitions to organize various world winter sports competitions – a goal already achieved by Bansko which hosted a world ski cup round this winter.

According to the business executives and experts who took part in Monday's round table, the economic crisis has affected the numbers of British and Irish tourists coming to Bulgaria, while the visa regimes for Russia and Turkey have a similar effect.

The resorts and the Economy Ministry also plan to boost their efforts to attract Bulgarian tourists to the winter resorts.

While Bulgaria's winter resorts are traditionally seen as important for the country's tourism revenue, their share is nowhere near that of the Black Sea summer resorts which are usually visited by several million foreign tourists each year.

Source: novinite.com