site.btaTourism Industry Expected to Grow by 11% in 2016

Tourism Industry Expected to Grow by 11% in 2016

Sofia, October 27 (BTA) - In 2016, 11 million Bulgarian and foreign tourists are expected to have visited the country. 2016 is projected to be a record year for Bulgarian tourism with a growth of 10.2-11 per cent, Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova told a news conference on Thursday. She said those were the conservative estimates of her ministry.

Projections for 2017 are quite optimistic too, she added. The summer of 2016 saw 18 per cent more tourists from the like period of 2015. Between June and September over 5 million foreign tourists visited Bulgaria. Including pre- and post-season their number exceeds 6.6 million, up by 17 per cent from 2015.

Between January and September nearly 7 million foreign tourists visited Bulgaria, or 15 per cent more from the like period of 2015, when the total number of tourists was 7.1 million.

By the year's end according to conservative estimates the barrier of 8 million foreign tourists could be exceeded in addition to the 2 million Bulgarians who visited summer resorts, or an increase of 7 per cent from the June-September period of 2015. Since the beginning of the year the increase is some 8 per cent, or 2.9 million Bulgarians. Their number is projected to reach 4 million by the year's end, bringing the number of Bulgarian and foreign tourists to 11 million.

Angelkova said that revenues from tourism have grown by 15 per cent to 4.7 billion leva.