site.btaBulgaria, Turkiye Discuss New Opportunities for Expanding Tourism Cooperation

The 4th session of the Bulgarian-Turkish Tourism Committee took place in Istanbul. The forum was opened by Bulgarian Tourism Minister Zaritsa Dinkova and her Turkish counterpart Mehmet Huri Ersoy.

According to Dinkova, there is a serious potential for the development of tourists’ exchanges between Bulgaria and Turkiye. The less known tourist destinations of the two countries should be promoted on a reciprocal basis, she emphasized, adding that Bulgaria is an increasingly popular destination for winter tourism, and last winter there were nearly 50,000 guests in the country from Turkiye.

In turn, Turkish Minister Ersoy highlighted the huge increase in mutual travel between Turkiye and Bulgaria. "Bulgarian citizens can now travel to our country with their ID card without needing a passport. This regulation has had a big impact on the increase in visits. I would like to suggest another way in which we can mutually improve the increase in the number of our tourists. I believe that increasing the flights of Bulgarian airlines will make a great contribution to increasing the mutual tourist volume," he said.

The 4th session of the Bulgarian-Turkish Tourism Committee was attended by Bulgarian Deputy Tourism Minister Irena Georgieva and Turkish Deputy Culture and Tourism Minister Nadir Alpasan, as well as by delegations of the two countries.

The participants discussed a wide range of issues of cooperation within international tourism organizations, development and presentation of joint products for consumers, investment, promotion of links between NGOs, exchange of personnel, increasing opportunities for travel by air, land and sea.

The establishment of sub-committees in both countries was also proposed, both in terms of the different sectors and the issues being addressed in the field of tourism.

The issues and proposals discussed were included in the minutes of the meeting, which were signed by the two Deputy Ministers chairing the session.