REPORT FROM BERLIN“We’re a small country but with a big variety of tourism products,” stated Biser Yalamov…
REPORT FROM BERLIN“We’re a small country but with a big variety of tourism products,” stated Biser Yalamov, Executive Director of the Bulgarian Tourism Authority to the ITB Daily. “We offer good value for money.”
Bulgaria is riding a huge wave upwards on inbound tourism – despite grumbles from some markets (notably Germany) that holidays are being blighted by excessive construction work on and close to the main resort beaches. The strong growth trend is one they see continuing, asserted Dimitar Hadjinikolov, Deputy Minister of Economy for Bulgaria. The numbers are impressive.
In 2004, Bulgaria received over 4 million international visitors, which was 45% more than in 2003. From the German market alone, there were over 565 thousand visitors – 115% growth over the previous year. In fact, all but four of Bulgaria’s top 15 markets showed double-digit growth. The most impressive were the UK (+62.6%), Poland (+61.3%) and Sweden (36.4%).
It helps that Bulgaria is, as Yalamov emphasised, only a two-hour flight from most of the generating markets for the country. And, he said, “Bulgaria is especially unique in that the landscape changes every 15 minutes. You have to visit Bulgaria to see this.”
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