The CEO of the Institute for Analysis and Assessment in Tourism Rumen Draganov has said that this year’s summer season in Bulgaria has been very successful. In an interview for BGNES he has specified that by end-August more than 8.3 million foreign visitors have visited the country and when adding to them trips of Bulgarians during the summer the year will wrap up with close to 11.6 million tourists accounting for a growth of 8%.

In the summer months, the biggest number of tourists came from the European Union. A key market for Bulgarian tourism is Germany but this time the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia have also generated big volumes. From Greece alone more than 1.5 milliontourists arrive annually, and visits from Great Britain and Austria come to 200,000. 

Low-cost airlines have had a major contribution into this growth. They continue to operate flights to this country and this suggests that the sector will continue to make profit, mostly from cultural and historical tourism.

For the first time in 2017 the ratio between summer and seaside tourism has changed. Seaside tourism has experienced stagnation because of poor marketing and advertising of Black Sea resorts, the Institute for Analysis and Assessment in Tourism reports.

This year has also suggested that Bulgarian hotel and restaurant managershave started to understand the importance of wages paid to staff, and in all likelihood the sector will end the year with roughly 33% rise in wages of workers in tourism. Managers have become aware that the problem with the shortage of staff is not solved by increasing openings in colleges for tourism, but by increasing wages which is the only way to stop the exodus of qualified hands abroad.

Bookings for the winter season even now suggest a growth of 10%. The Institute for Analysis and Assessment in Tourismexplains this fact again with the activity of low-cost airlines and with busy charter flight programs, as well as with Bulgaria’s growing balneo, spa and wellness tourism.

Compiled by Stoimen Pavlov

English Daniela Konstantinova