Minister of Tourism: Bulgaria to Launch Talks with Airlines on New Charter Programmes in Bid to Revive German Tourism Market

Bulgaria will begin negotiations with airlines on new charter flight programmes in an effort to restore the German tourism market, which has experienced a significant decline in recent years. This was announced by Tourism Minister Ilin Dimitrov in Sveti Vlas, where he arrived for the opening of the “Experience Bulgaria 2026” conference.

According to the minister, the primary challenge facing both the state and the tourism industry is to halt the continuing decline of the German market.

Dimitrov said the downturn is not due to a lack of interest in Bulgaria as a destination, but rather to problems between key market participants.

“Several of the major players were unable to reach an understanding, and the result has been a very serious decline in the German market in Bulgaria. Whether the issues were financial or related to conflicts between companies, the outcome is clear – we do not have sufficient transport capacity,” Dimitrov said.

“If you currently see Sunny Beach looking beautiful, green and clean, but emptier and less crowded, this is also due to the absence of German tourists,” he added.

Before the pandemic, Bulgaria welcomed around 700,000 German tourists annually. This year, however, the number is expected to be just over 300,000.

“You can see the scale of the decline in what is a structurally important market. At the moment, we should stop the tourism silence, halt the free fall and try to push ourselves up from the bottom,” the minister said.

Ilin Dimitrov noted that Bulgaria already has one operational and another planned air-connectivity fund for the Black Sea coast. However, he believes a larger-scale mechanism is required, involving the state, municipalities and the tourism sector.

According to him, one possible solution is the reintroduction of schemes to incentivise airlines through support linked to occupied seats on flights.

At the same time, the Association of Incoming Agencies (AIA) announced that it expects the German tourism market to decline by between 25 and 30 per cent compared with 2025 due to insufficient airline capacity.

This would represent a loss of approximately 120,000 German tourists, according to the association’s deputy chairman, Ivan Sutev.

He said the negative trend came as a particularly unpleasant surprise for the sector at the end of November last year. The problem stems from the termination of the partnership between Electra Airways and SunExpress, which had been agreed during the tourism trade fair in Berlin last year and was intended to guarantee the necessary charter capacity for German tour operators over a three-year period.

Discussions are currently under way to secure alternative solutions through existing airlines and the Lufthansa Group, with the aim of establishing a stronger flight programme for the 2027 season.