Bulgaria Tourism Boss: We Sealed Loss of Serbian Tourists by Recognizing Kosovo

"Krushkova also stressed that the route of tourists from Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic visiting Bulgaria goes through Serbia.

She recommended that Bulgarians traveling through Serbia should plan their route very carefully."

ok, we lose from our investments in Serbia, Serbian tourists and other tourists who have to pass through Serbia, Bulgarian vehicles who pass through Serbia etc.

Was it really in our interest to recognize Kosovo now and together with Croatia and Hungary? Are we closer to Hungary than to Romania or Greece?

Romania and Greece are our neighbors and didnt recognize Kosovo and as far as know the Greeks are very able to look after their national interests since more than 2000 years.

So in what exactly our national interests are different from those of Romania and Greece? Kolega?

Well, there will be hordes of Kosovars and Albanians instead! Only those will have to be subsidized to come... It remains to be seen if and when great rich America would volunteer to settle their respective bills... or not?

>> Well, there will be hordes of Kosovars and Albanians instead! Only those will have to be subsidized to come... It remains to be seen if and when great rich America would volunteer to settle their respective bills... or not? <<

:))) Finally, a new poster here with a sense of humour! ;)

Sense of humor? Would the word "nonsense" work just as well in this sentence?

ok, the joke aside Kosovars+Albanians together makes 5.6 million people and Serbia is 10 million and with common border so it was better to keep friendly Serbia because there are 2-3 times more potential tourists for BG there.

The Serbs have to go on vacation somewhere.....

Creepy:
"Was it really in our interest to recognize Kosovo now and together with Croatia and Hungary? Are we closer to Hungary than to Romania or Greece?"

Creepy let me try to explain this.
It bugs me that you don't see it, because you are every smart.

In the 20th century for variety of reasons, BG was NOT a part of the transport infrastructure in the Balkans.
The Greeks and Serbs built up their infrastructure to divert the East/West connection through their countries instead, with minimum links towards BG border.
Consequently we were isolated and did not benefit from our convenient geographical location.

This here is a great reversal.
Hopefully the Serbs (with their buddies the Greeks) will be dumb enough to continue this self-imposed isolation, long enough to allow BG to replace them as the transportation hub of the area.
I love this irony.
What I love the best is that while BG spent the second part of the 20 century peddling ideology and "feelings" over self interests, now the Serbs (and the Greeks with Makedonia) are doing that while we are acting with logic.
As if the "dumb" monkey has jumped on their shoulder.

As a historian this here certainly gets my nipples hard;)))

Kolega,

As far as I see on the map, the shortest East/West road goes like Istanbul-Sofia-Beograd etc. so it goes through Serbia anyway.

The other possible East/West road has to go through Bulgaria and Romania but is not the shortest one.

I think it will be difficult not to pass through Bulgaria if one has to go from East to West, with or without Serbia.

"'We used to have about 186 000 Serbian tourists. Last year the drop was 74%, and I cannot make a prognosis how many are going to come this year', Krushkova said."

So the trend is nothing new, eh? So what did BG do last year to lose the 74%? And who gives a fck?

YOu are right, Sir. Nobody within recent Bulgarian governments and opposition has, or is thinking what will happen after a decision is made. All of them are on the payroll of bulgarian Tax payers, and even if the country will loose all its wealth they will be payed for all the nonsense they are doing.Sad but through. So now after they made a decision they will start thinking... UNbelievable but typical for all the Chameleons, Starting from the Foreign Minister, the big shots inthe foreign office, the head of the Prime minister Cabinet,Do not forget the so called opposition, Mr. Ivan KOstov, Mr. Peter Stoyanov, Zhelyu Zhelev and name them all!!!

"In the first year of Bulgaria's membership in the European block Turkey retained its lead as the most preferred destination for traveling Bulgarians, registering 1,21 million trips, followed by Greece (924,000) and Serbia (484,000)."

That is what one of articles said here .

do you know why? because it was the cheapest and closest with something interesting to be seen, which is nothing besides the beautiful sea resorts

"I think it will be difficult not to pass through Bulgaria if one has to go from East to West, with or without Serbia."

Yet that's exactly what was happening for years, even after 1989.
Looking at the maps is misleading. There are many more factors involved, like warehousing, distribution centers, and such.
Like I said, BG is finally taking advantage of its convenient geographical location.

So what ? Stop going there and collect money for trip to US !!!