construction in Slunchev Bryag (Sunny Beach) Black Sea
resort has already led to a supply higher than demand.
Photo: PROPERTYWISE ARCHIVE
On February 1 2007, the Cabinet appointed Anelia Kroushkova as the new head of the State Agency for Tourism (SAT).
Kroushkovas nomination was from the quota of Vassilevs party, the National Movement for Stability and Progress (formerly known as the National Movement Simeon II). She graduated from Sofias University of National and World Economy with a masters in economics and transport management.
On February 2, Kroushkova told Bulgarian-language daily 24 Chassa that during her term, she would listen to business.
She received public support from the tourism business for her promises made at her first news conference on February 13, to fight corruption in the industry.
During the year, SAT took part in various international and national tourism exhibitions.
On February 6 and 7, at the International Mediterranean Tourism Market exhibition in Tel Aviv, Bulgaria was presented as a year-round tourist destination, accentuating opportunities offered by the country for winter vacations, seaside holidays in summer, hydrotherapy, cultural and educational tourism and cruises.
SAT chose to take part in the exhibition because Israeli tourist interest in Bulgaria had been growing.
At the beginning of February, SAT took part in the FITUR exhibition in Madrid.
Crafts people from various Bulgarian regions presented their work, while musicians performed ethnic, folk and jazz numbers. Wine and food tasting also featured at the presentation.
For the first time, Bulgaria took part in the International CONFEX tourist expo in London, held from February 20 to 22. SAT organised Bulgarias presence. CONFEX is aimed at professionals in the field of business trips and congress tourism.
In March, the country took part in two international tourism expos in Moscow. The first, ITM 2007 took place on March 18-21 and the second, MITT 2007, was from March 21-24.
At the first expo, March 20 was announced as Bulgaria Day. A number of Russian tour operators gathered at the Bulgarian stall to get acquainted with the latest offerings in Bulgarian tourism.
At the end of January, a tourism industry survey showed that the number of individual tourists in Bulgaria was growing faster than that of organised groups of visitors. Also growing was the number of young foreigners and travellers seeking cheaper and less pretentious places to stay. Popular travel websites started presenting hundreds of hostels in Bulgaria, including cabins and small family hotels.
On March 12, The Sofia Echo reported that the local tourism industry lacked a qualified labour force. Bulgarian bartenders and waitresses preferred to work abroad where they could earn three or four times the amount they were paid here. Thai, Indonesian and ethnic Bulgarians from Bessarabia (part of Moldova) were being recruited to work at Bulgarian Black Sea resorts.
Research by the World Economic Forum placed Bulgaria 54th in the world, according to its criteria of conditions for tourism development.
The beginning of the summer tourist season for Bulgarias Black Sea coast was marked by a solemn ceremony held on March 25 in Bourgas Airport minutes before the arrival of the first tourists, who were from Denmark. Construction at that time was booming along the coast and construction companies were allowed to work until May 1.
Following the trend of rapid development of the Bulgarian tourist sector, air carriers started opening new flight destinations to and from Bourgas and Varna.
On April 15, the ski season in Bulgaria officially ended, although most ski resorts still had good skiing conditions. Only Borovets kept its facilities open to visitors. Nevertheless, during the months up until March 2007, the ski season was quite poor because of a lack of snow and the construction sites, mainly in Pirin and Bansko.
On May 10, the capital city Sofia was presented as a weekend tourism destination for locals and foreigners at a tourism expo that took place in Rousse. At weekends, hotels in Sofia tend to have plenty of available accommodation.
On the same day, the Cabinet approved regulations to govern the definition of spa, wellness and business hotels and the number of stars that they may be awarded. The ordinance, drafted by SAT, also set out the conditions that apply to such accommodation places.
Again in July, Bulgaria and China started a tourism partnership. Both countries presented a list with the names of their travel agencies to the European Commission on July 15.
The first quarter of 2007 saw a 7.6 per cent increase in the flow of foreigners spending their winter holidays in Bulgaria. For January-May 2007, the number of international tourists was 3.85 per cent lower than in the same period in 2006. This change was mainly because of the decrease in tourists from Macedonian (74 per cent less than in 2006) and from Serbia and Montenegro (80 per cent less). Kroushkova said this is most probably because of the new visa requirements for these two countries. The number of EU tourists, however, increased by 31.79 per cent but it is no longer possible to know exactly which European Union country a visitor was from because from January 1 2007, Bulgarian border authorities stopped recording this information.
The number of Russian tourists in the first three months of 2007 also increased in comparison to same the period of 2006, by 15.6 per cent.
The number of Bulgarians travelling abroad increased by 9.6 per cent, with tourists to the EU growing by 16.84 per cent. On the other hand, the number of Bulgarians visiting the US was down 24 per cent compared to 2006. Egypt registered the biggest increase in number of Bulgarian tourists, 53 per cent more than in 2006. About 2.868 million Bulgarians in total travelled abroad between January and August 2007.
Revenues in the four months leading up to April 2007 rose 13.7 per cent year-on-year to $464 million, according SAT. Meanwhile, on August 6 the Bulgarian consulate in Moscow issued the 100 000th tourist visa for 2007, SAT said.
During summer 2007, the German market began to stabilise after earlier difficulties and the number of tourists visiting Bulgaria started to grow.
Overall, the number of foreign tourists visiting Bulgaria between January and August increased by 6.88 per cent, or 3.97 million people on an annual basis.
Up until the end of July 2007 the increase was relatively low but a large increase in the number of tourists was registered in August.
According to Bulgarian National Bank data, income from international tourism for January to July 2007 amounted to 1347.4 million euro, a year-on-year increase of 16.04 per cent.
Furthermore, on September 3 2007 a Union of the Investors in Tourism Creation was established, including representatives of 50 tourism operators and companies. Bulgarian Olympic Committee chairperson Stefka Kostadinova was appointed to be responsible for the sport and tourism section.
On September 6, the National Tourism Industry Confederation (NTIC) came into being.
After many hoteliers left the National Tourism Board in May due to a dislike of its strategic direction, many of them were at the founding meeting of the Tourism Sector Investors Union (TSIU). This session took the shine off the first meeting of the NTIC that had the same purpose and was scheduled for two days later. It also hit the NTIC in terms of size, profile of membership and number of eminent figures on board.
On September 27, the World Tourism Day celebrated by United Nations World Tourist Organisation, Kroushkova said in that 2007, Bulgaria had made much more effort to advertise itself online than in previous years.
