site.btaUPDATED BTA to Partner with European Spas Association Congress to Be Held in Varna

The Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) will be a partner of the European Spas Association (ESPA) Congress, which will take place from May 11 to 13 in Varna, in the year marking the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Bulgarian Union of Balneology and SPA Tourism (BUBSPA). The partnership was announced Tuesday at a press conference at the BTA National Press Club in Sofia.

The press conference was attended by ESPA President and BUBSPA Chair Siyka Katsarova and BTA Director General Kiril Valchev.

Valchev noted that, in addition to Varna, the ESPA Congress will also be held in the resorts of Sts Constantine and Helena, Golden Sands, and Albena. This will allow Bulgaria to showcase its potential in health tourism, Valchev said, recalling that the country has the highest number of mineral springs in continental Europe.

Katsarova pointed out that the aim of the event is to demonstrate to European policymakers that the unique advantage of the continent lies in its mineral waters and SPA medicine, which have traditions dating back to Roman and Thracian times. Bulgaria is a leading country in this field, she added.

Valchev announced that BTA will produce a series of articles dedicated to health tourism, to be presented in Bulgarian and English, and later published in a special issue of LIK magazine focused on health tourism.

Katsarova also noted that BTA will be ESPA’s main media partner for 2026.

Valchev recalled that BTA and BUBSPA have a partnership agreement signed in Burgas in September 2024, and since then BTA has been systematically publishing reports on Bulgarian spa, balneo and climatic resorts. In 2025 BTA was a partner for the ESPA congress in Estonia.

Regarding BTA’s commitment to a specialized issue of LIK magazine in connection with the congress, the BTA Director General noted that for the World Wine Forum in Plovdiv last year the news agency, together with the Tourism Ministry, published the specialized edition ‘Follow the Path of Bulgarian Wine’, which featured more than 100 wineries. He proposed that BTA prepare a similar edition with the news from 2026 for those more than 200 certified sites of Bulgarian health tourism. For this purpose, the news agency will use its well-developed network of correspondents across the country. These editions in Bulgarian and English will be provided to the delegates of the congress (about 120 experts from more than 20 countries) and will be available in PDF format on the websites of BTA, ESPA, BUBSPA and the organizations’ partners.

Katsarova stressed that the congress will be a meeting of all specialists in the field of health tourism, including spa, wellness and medical tourism. She said that representatives of the European Commission and the European Parliament are expected to take part in the opening of the forum. At the upcoming forum, good practices in health tourism will be presented for the first time – dental clinics working with international patients. According to data from the Tourism Ministry, there are 54 medical spa centres, 136 spa centres and more than 60 wellness centres in Bulgaria as at the end of November 2025. In total there are more than 200 certified sites, including the dental clinics that are to be added to the portfolio, Katsarova said.