site.btaDeputy Tourism Minister: We Must Put Bulgaria on the Map of Preferred European Wine and Culinary Destinations

In recent months, the efforts of the Ministry of Tourism have been aimed at the implementation of policies that would make Bulgaria a preferred destination for sustainable tourism in all four seasons with a quality tourist product, by popularizing specialized forms of tourism, part of which is wine tourism, said Deputy Tourism  Minister Irena Georgieva on Thursday at the opening of a Bulgarian-Greek business forum, titled "The Future of Tourism in the Cross-Border Region". 

The forum was organized by the Sandanski Association of Hoteliers, Restaurateurs and Tour Operators  within the framework of the CapTour project, an initiative for capitalizing on the prospects of tourism in the region financed under the INTERREG Greece - Bulgaria programme. 

The event was attended by representatives of the largest hotel association in Greece Hellenic, representatives of the academic community in Bulgaria and in Thessaloniki, the Rhodopes Hoteliers and Restaurateurs Association, representatives of the local government from Greece and the Bulgarian municipalities of Sandanski, Petrich and Strumyani, etc. 

The city of Sandanski's ambition to become the capital of wine tourism and wine production in Bulgaria was expressed at the forum.

"After the series of crises and the changing environment, in order to be competitive in the global tourism market, we must be more adaptive and innovative, work faster, be more focused and more efficient," stressed Deputy Minister Irena Georgieva.

She pointed out that in 2022 over 117,000 tourists visited the municipality of Sandanski, which is an increase of about 20% compared to 2021. The largest number of registrations were from Bulgarian tourists (over 95,000), as well as from tourists from the Republic of North Macedonia (over 7,600), Greece (over 3,300), Romania (almost 2,700), Israel (over 960), Kosovo (about 900), Germany (over 850), France (over 540).