BULGARIA AND GREECE SIGN A JOINT PROGRAMME FOR 2016-2018 IN THE AREA OF TOURISM

Bulgaria’s Minister of Tourism, Nikolina Angelkova, and the Minister of Economy, Development and Tourism of Greece, Giorgos Stathakis, signed a joint programme for the period 2016 – 2018 in the area of tourism. The programme was signed within the intergovernmental meeting, which took place in Sofia on 1st of August. Earlier, the two ministers had a bilateral meeting, the press office of the Ministry of Tourism announced.

"Traditionally Bulgaria welcomes many Greek tourists and many Bulgarians choose Greece for their holidays. It is of mutual interest to deepen the cooperation between the two countries and have more joint initiatives," Minister Angelkova said.

She briefed her Greek counterpart on the event, which Bulgaria organized jointly with the World Tourism Organization in Sofia from 29th of November to 1st of December. Minister Stathakis has said he would attend the forum in person, but if this is not possible, a relevant deputy minister will attend. Anglekova and Stathakis discussed possibilities for exchange of experience in the sector and in particular the improvement of the normative framework and training of personnel working in the area of tourism.

Greek tourists come in Bulgaria mainly for winter tourism, while Bulgarians prefer to go to Greece in the summer. 972,971 Greeks visited Bulgaria (for tourism) in 2015 and 1,043,078 Bulgarians visited Greece. For the first 6 months of 2016, the positive trend remains and over 520, 000 Greek tourists visited Bulgaria and around 515,000 Bulgarians visited Grece, the statement said.

The two ministers agreed in September to continue talks at expert level to prepare a memorandum with specific topics and commitments to deepen cooperation. Among them are the exchange of experiences on diversification of the tourism product and the development of joint tourist product for distant markets with a focus on cultural and religious tourism.