Bulgaria looks to provide tourism vouchers to promote domestic travel

Bulgaria’s new Tourism Minister, Mariana Nikolova, has said the country’s resorts, tourist attractions, rich history and natural beauty need advertising as safe and secure destinations for vacationing. Today, people working in tourism need the support of the state as is done in all European countries, she said, according to a report by Novinite.

“I take on the Ministry of Tourism with the clear awareness that the most affected industry in the world from the pandemic is tourism. There is no forecast to give us a horizon when people’s travel will return to the pace and volume to which we were accustomed to earlier,” she said.

“I would like to present to you some important facts that outline the difficult state of tourism at the moment. In June, 99 flights arrived at Varna Airport, and last year during the same period there were 1000. The situation is similar at Bourgas Airport – 203 flights now against 2000 in 2019. There is a danger that nearly 70% of the hotels in our largest resort areas, Sunny Beach and Golden Sands, will remain closed,” she said.

“Due to the absence of foreign tourists, transport, food industry, agriculture and many services will fall into a financial crisis. The economy of many settlements in Bulgaria is based only on tourism,” the minister said.

A priority in the new conditions will be to encourage Bulgarians to spend their holidays in Bulgaria, whether at sea or in the mountains, in order to compensate for the outflow of foreign tourists. Providing holiday and tourism vouchers to a wide range of people will be a major incentive and support for the industry.