Standstill In Local Tourism Expected

The number of foreign tourists, who arrived in Bulgaria in 2007 is more than 4 million people, which is growth of 7% compared to the previous year.

The incomes from tourism in 2007 are round 11% more compared to 2006, says an analysis of Bulgaria's Center for Economy Development.

This way the incomes from visitations reached the sum of 2,3 billion EUR.

For 2008 the money are expected to be 3 billion EUR incomes from foreign visits. The tourists are mostly from Romania, Greece, Germany, UK, Sweden and Finland.

Despite the increase of the number of tourists from abroad, the tendency of standstill started to rise in local tourism.

The reason comes from the overbuilding of seaside and several mountain resorts, low service quality and the shortage of qualified cadres, lack of attractively enough advertisement for Bulgaria as tourism destination.

Last year Bulgarian citizens made over 4,5 million travelings abroad, which is with 8%  more, compared to 2006. The most visited countries are Turkey, Greece and Macedonia.

Recently was marked the interest of Bulgarian tourists towards exotic destinations. Local holiday-makers priorities are orientated to the balneology resorts, rural and eco-tourism.international.ibox.bg