View of the city of Varna. Photo by BGNES.
Hotels in Bulgaria's Black Sea city of Varna have reported some BGN 163M revenue in the period June-August, according to data released by the regional statistical office.
Despite the cold and rainy start of the season and the crisis in Ukraine, which led to a decrease in the number of tourists, revenues from hotel stays were an average of 3% higher than in 2013, the Bulgarian newspaper Trud reports.
In August, hotel facilities with more than 10 beds accommodated almost 198,500 people, a 17.8% drop compared to 2013. Tourists also decreased by 19% in July and were a total of 184,400 people. The overnight stays, however, dropped by just about 5% mainly due to the Bulgarian tourists who spent less time at the seaside.
In the peak season, only one fifth of the visitors of Varna were Bulgarians. The highest number of foreign tourists came from Germany, followed by Russians, Romanians, and Poles.