Around 85% of foreign tourists arrive in Bulgaria by charter flight. Because of the coronavirus, however, 98% of the charter flights in June have been cancelled.

What will happen to the flights to the Bulgarian Black Sea coast scheduled for July is unclear. The lack of foreign tourists at the beginning of the summer has meant that more than 70% of the hotels in Sunny Beach, the biggest resort in the Southern portion of the Bulgarian black Sea coast, have remained closed.

While in June, 2019, Bulgaria welcomed more than 315,000 tourists, this year their number over the same period is expected to be around 6,000.

“There is a risk of not having any tourist season at all this year,” Ivan Ivanov, chairman of the tourism chamber in Bourgas said for the BNR.