The number of holiday bookings for Bulgaria has been surging, with tour operators expecting to make up for decreasing numbers of Russian tourists registered last year.

Austrian leisure websites cite bookings data by travel company Ruefa showing many people who previously traveled to Turkey now choose Bulgaria for being recently developed as a tourist destination affordable to families and young holidaymakers.

Holiday bookings for a trip to the country have risen by 76 percent in the first months of 2016 compared to the same period of the year before. Ruefa statistics suggest bookings for Croatia are also on the rise.

According to kayak.de, a German travel site, online searches for the Black Sea airports of Varna and Burgas were up 13% and 15% respectively in January and February of this year.

"Many hotel operators are concerned about whether they'll have enough beds," Reuters quotes Plamen Bakalov, or Economic Affairs at Bulgaria's consulate in Frankfurt, as saying at ITB Berlin, the world's larges travel fair.

Terror attacks in Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt have shifted part of the tourist flow to other destinations.

On the contrary, countries supposedly carrying a smaller risk of being targeted by terror attacks, such as Spain, Portugal and Bulgaria, are expected to benefit from the development.

Bulgaria "markets itself as family-friendly and low-priced" with its Black Sea resorts, mountain ranges, medieval monasteries and classical ruins.
 

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