Bulgaria completed a very good winter season in the tourism and this summer we expect growth over the average in Europe

The passing winter season was exceptionally good one; despite the little snow we welcomed more tourists than last year. Our resorts were excellent and this was not a surprise. That is why Bulgaria has been announced as the fourth most desired winter destination in Europe at WTM-London, and the most indicative of this recognition is the fact that the Chief Supervisor of the slopes at the Winter Olympics Game in Sochi was the Bulgarian Valentin Stefanov together with a part of his team. We indicate a growth above 2.3% in visiting the winter resorts in comparison with the last year, and we hope that it will increase considering the expected at least two weeks season. That said the Deputy Minister of Economy and Energy, in charge of Tourism Department Branimir Botev at “More form the Day” on BNT1. He stressed that the state is making serious efforts to promote sustainable development of the winter tourism, but to achieve even higher results we should be united and work as a team to properly manage “the mountain’’.

The tourism is a key sector for economic development, which has become a structural industry with 13.6% share upon GDP calculation. Over EUR 3 billion from the tourism are directly enrolled in the treasury, which is a great achievement for our country. According to the World Tourism Organization of the UN, EUR 5.5 billion is the total resource generated by the tourism in Bulgaria's GDP- both directly and through the branches, implementing through it, emphasized Deputy Minister Botev. He drew attention to the fact that there was a huge untapped potential in mountain and winter tourism in Bulgaria with its 146 mountain peaks over 2,000 meters. First, we have to answer the question if we want a tourism, advanced economy, investment and sustainable livelihoods in these regions because the mountainous and hilly municipalities have no other alternative. More than half of the municipalities in the country are in such areas. People know and want that, but a balance between investment intentions and nature should be looked for.

The Deputy Minister presented some impressive examples for a tourist country as Andorra, which has an area of 430 square kilometers - twice smallest than the municipality of Sevlievo, but there are 106 lifts and ski lifts, and 360 km of tracks there. Against this background, our famous snow resorts Pamporovo, Bansko and Borovets have a total of 140 km of ski slopes and 31 ski facilities. We meet 1.5 million tourists totally in the mountains during the winter and summer, and Andorra with its population of 70 000 people - 9 million visitors.