site.btaRussian Federal Agency for Tourism Says Choice of Bulgaria for Holiday by Russians Will Be Welcomed

Russian Federal Agency for Tourism Says Choice of Bulgaria for Holiday by Russians Will Be Welcomed

Moscow/Sofia, December 9 (BTA) - If more Russian tourists now prefer Bulgaria for their holidays this will be welcomed, as the country is a good opportunity, the head of the Russian Federal Agency for Tourism, Oleg Safonov, said at a meeting with Bulgaria's Minister of Tourism Nikolina Angelkova. The sides met in Moscow on the initiative of the Bulgarian minister, Angelkova's ministry said Wednesday.

"We have the ambition to offer the best conditions to Russian tourists. We are continuing to investigate all opportunities to offer additional waivers at the issuance of visas, including by the opening of new visa centres," Angelkova recalled. She undertook to continue the dialogue with the Foreign Ministry in this respect, reminding that her ministry transferred funds from its account to finance the operation of consular services in the Russian Federation. At the moment, visas are issued at 21 visa centres and the time of issuance has been shortened to a maximum.

Angelkova and Safonov agreed that the Bulgarian-Russian roundtable held in November in Sofia had extremely positive results and was indicative that the tourist business of the two countries can cooperate very well and that the tourist flow can increase. A reciprocal B2B (business to business) roundtable to promote child tourism is planned to be held in Moscow next year, during the international tourist fair in March.

At the end of January Bulgaria is also expected to host the intergovernmental commission for economic, scientific and technical cooperation, which Safonov is expected to attend. It was decided that one of the days will be dedicated to discussion of bilateral relations in the sphere of tourism.

Other subjects on the agenda included joint work to open a specialized call centre in Bulgaria providing up-to-date information to Russian tourists.

Angelkova also conferred with the head of the Ethnic Policy and Tourism department of Moscow city government, Vladimir Chernikov, as well as with his deputy and the leadership of the Association of Tour Operators (ATOR).