site.btaBulgaria Presents Potential for Year-round Health Tourism in Austria 

The first official presentation of Bulgaria as a destination for health tourism (with a focus on Medical/Spa and wellness) to a professional Austrian audience will take place in Vienna on Tuesday, the Bulgarian Union of Balneology and Spa Tourism said.  
  
The event is held with the support of the Ministry of Tourism of Bulgaria and with the assistance of the Embassy of Bulgaria in Austria. The forum is expected to be attended by Tourism Minister Zaritsa Dinkova and Bulgarian Ambassador to Austria Desislava Naydenova-Gospodinova. 
 
Market Austria is the second project of the Bulgarian Union of Balneology and Spa Tourism, with which the organization continues its consistent policy of positioning our country as a destination for year-round quality health tourism on the international market, after the German Association of Statutory Health Insurance Companies first included Bulgaria in the list of countries in which it recognizes and reimburses the costs of rehabilitation, according to the press release. 
 
The state-run German National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV-Spitzenverband) has expanded the list of countries in which it recognizes the provision of medical outpatient services, adding Bulgaria on September 20, 2019. As of the end of July 2020, there were more than 80 certified centres in the country offering spa, wellness and rehabilitation services that now have the opportunity to partner with German health insurance funds. 
 
The event in Vienna is the first official presentation of Bulgaria to Austrian insurance companies, travel agencies, tour operators and tourism professionals. Investors of the largest Bulgarian Medical/Spa and Spa facilities providing year-round health tourism services are coming to Vienna to participate in the forum. 
 
Bulgaria is a popular destination among Austrian tourists mainly for its mass tourism, the Tourism Ministry said in mid-March in connection with one of the country's recent participations at an exhibition in Vienna. Bulgaria is a preferred destination for summer holidays on the Black Sea coast, for mountain and winter recreation, as well as for spa treatment at attractive prices with high quality. Tourist demand suggests the potential for the development of other specialized services such as various opportunities for tours around Bulgaria with motorcycles, caravans, campers, offers for city breaks tours, wellness programs, combined trips, cultural, sea, religious tourism (visiting monasteries), etc.