Bulgarian tour operator Alma Tour would acquire full control over Finnish tour operator Domina, with whom it had partner relations, Alma Tour manager Lyubomir Pankovski said as quoted by Dnevnik daily.

With this the company would start developing more active programmes for Finnish tourists both in summer and in winter, Pankovski added.

This would be the second time Alma Tour gained control over a foreign tour operator since it already owned the majority share of Fiji Travel - a company working on the Baltic market, Dnevnik daily reminded.

Pankovski explained that buying local structures when appropriate was part of the company's development strategy.

For 2008 Alma Tour planned on bringing 12 thousand Finnish tourists to Bulgaria - 5 thousand more than in 2007, when it started on the Finnish market, Pankovski said. The winter programme would include skiing and visiting Sofia, while the summer would combine sea holidays with spa's.

Pankovski said that from this winter on Alma Tour would start working actively on the British market as well. It had already signed contracts with British tour operators, most of which worked with online reservations. Alma Tour expected there would be a lot of last-minute bookings this holiday season since British tourists wanted to make sure there would be snow.

Alma Tour representatives said from this year on there would be more and more tourists visiting Bulgaria via online bookings.

The other major market for Alma Tour, the Russian market, was expected to grow by 30-40 per cent this winter compared to last year. Alma Tour expected to bring 10 000 Russian and Ukrainian tourists to Bulgaria. The biggest part of Russian tourists would visit Bansko, followed by Borovets and Pamporovo.

Alma Tour expected significant growth on the Russian market for summer 2008, when it expects to bring to Bulgaria between 25 and 30 000 tourists - 50 per cent more compared to last summer season.