site.btaKazanluk Mayor Expects 20% Rise in Tourism during Rose Festival in May

Kazanluk Mayor Expects 20% Rise in Tourism during Rose Festival in May

Sofia, May 5 (BTA) - Tens of thousands of guests from all over the world are expected to visit Kazanluk (Central Bulgaria) during this year's Rose Festival, and Kazanluk Municipality forecasts an increase by nearly 20 per cent in tourist visits, Mayor Galina Stoyanova said in a BTA interview.

This year the Rose Festival will start on May 13 with the election of a Rose Queen and will be on until June 5. The festival's programme features various events, such as a rose picking ritual, that give the city's guests an opportunity to participate in the local traditions. Also on the programme are a number of exhibitions, a street of crafts, concerts and open-air dancing.

Tourists are also attracted by the International Folklore Festival, which presents the best of Bulgarian and tens of other countries' folk song and dance art. The festival has grown impressively in the last years, Stoyanova told BTA.

In her words, Kazanluk is one of the few Bulgarian cities under the auspices of UNESCO and it attracts tourists from various age, social and economic groups throughout the year. The main foreign guests are from the Balkans and Europe, Russia, and Eastern and Central Asia, she added.

Stoyanova shared the municipality's ambitious goal for the next years: to turn Kazanluk into an established capital of the "Valley of Roses" and the "Valley of Thracian Kings," as well as a centre of modern art in Bulgaria.