Over 700 000 Germans Visited Bulgaria for Tourism Purposes in 2014 - Minister

Business » TOURISM | March 6, 2015, Friday // 14:05
Bulgaria: Over 700 000 Germans Visited Bulgaria for Tourism Purposes in 2014 - Minister Bulgaria's Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova, photo by BGNES

Speaking at the ITB Berlin (Internationale Tourismus-B?rse Berlin), Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova noted that nearly 1 million Germans had visited Bulgaria in 2014, with over 700 000 of them traveling to the country for tourism.

The Bulgarian delegation taking part in the world's largest tourism trade fair also includes Deputy Tourism Minister Nadya Marinova and Bulgaria’s Ambassador to Germany Radi Naydenov, according to the government's press office, as cited by money.bg.

Angelkova boasted at a press conference that Bulgaria was second in Europe by biodiversity and among the top 3 European countries by number of artifacts discovered during archaeological excavations.

She claimed that Bulgaria had great potential for cultural tourism, eco tourism, spa tourism, and sea and mountain tourism.

Angelkova presented a large-scale promotional campaign that had been implemented on the German market, including ads placed on 39 tourist websites and in 11 print editions (including Reise & Preise; Freizeit Spass, etc.), 406 airings of commercials on 9 TV channels (including RTL 2, SKY, TELE 5, Sport 1, etc.), and 36 subway ads placed in the Berlin underground.

She made clear that the campaign had been implemented under the EU operational program Regional Development 2007-2013.

Angelkova noted that in January 2015 arrivals of German nationals in Bulgaria had registered an increase by nearly 45% from the same period of 2014, meaning that Germans were beginning to discover tourism opportunities other than sea resorts in Bulgaria.

During the ITB, Angelkova met with representatives of Thomas Cook to discuss opportunities for enhancing cooperation and increasing tourist numbers in Bulgaria through the well-developed network of the travel agency.


Angelkova told the representatives of Thomas Cook that the authorities in Bulgaria were working on the establishment of a special fund or some other type of financial mechanism to channel investments into improving infrastructure and tourist attractions.

She said that efforts were also being made to boost the qualification of people employed in the tourism industry.
Angelkova also met with the Account Manager of BBC for Central and South Eastern Europe Daniel Morav?nszky to discuss the upcoming signing of the contract with the media outlet.

Bulgaria’s Tourism Minister explained that the talks with BBC had almost been wrapped up and the media outlet would soon start broadcasting promotional spots of Bulgaria.

Angelkova also took part in the fifth meeting of ministers of countries participating in the World Tourism Organization Silk Road Project and held a meeting with Darko Lorencin, Tourism Minister of Croatia, and Abdulaziz Kamilov, Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan, under the platform.

Bulgaria’s Tourism Minister also met with Pedro Ortun, Director-General of the Enterprise and Industry DG, to discuss opportunities for deepening cooperation in the sphere of tourism on an EU-level.

Angelkova had a meeting with Hans-Joachim Fuchtel from the Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) to exchange views on opportunities for extending cooperation and on marketing strategies for the creation of regional centers in each of Bulgaria’s tourism regions.

She noted that the proposal for the establishment of 9 tourism regions in Bulgaria was to be approved shortly and the authorities were to take steps to organize their management.

Bulgaria has a pavilion of 456 square meters presenting over 50 companies and organizations at the 48th edition of the ITB tourism trade fair taking place on March 4-8 in Berlin.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!

Tourism » Be a reporter: Write and send your article
Tags: tourism ministry, Nikolina Angelkova, ITB Berlin, tourism expo

Advertisement
Advertisement
Bulgaria news Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency - www.sofianewsagency.com) is unique with being a real time news provider in English that informs its readers about the latest Bulgarian news. The editorial staff also publishes a daily online newspaper "Sofia Morning News." Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency - www.sofianewsagency.com) and Sofia Morning News publish the latest economic, political and cultural news that take place in Bulgaria. Foreign media analysis on Bulgaria and World News in Brief are also part of the web site and the online newspaper. News Bulgaria