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Recent terrorist attacks in the Middle East, Africa and Europe have seriously affected the tourism industry, prompting many people to look for alternative, safer holiday destinations. Experts believe that Egypt, Turkey, France and Tunisia will receive significantly fewer tourists in 2016 than in the previous year.
According to Russian tour operators, after the November attacks in Paris and the March bombings in Brussels, many tourists cancelled planned trips to those countries. Tour operators in the Netherlands, Italy, Japan and China also reported an increase in cancellations. According to The Wall Street Journal, Belgian hotel occupancy after the attack was just 25%, while occupancy fell by 24.7% in London and by 15.1% in Paris.
Recent attacks in Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey have seriously undermined those countries’ tourism sectors. Turkey has also suffered from its conflict with Russia and the complete closure of this destination to Russian tourists.
Against the backdrop of these unprecedented events, tourist flows to Bulgaria have not declined. Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova said that local tour operators’ figures showed that foreign holidaymakers were not cancelling their winter bookings. Moreover, she expected the current year to bring the most successful season in several years, as indicated by the rise in early bookings and a 30% increase in charter flights scheduled for 2016.
Tourists from Europe and the CIS appear to regard Bulgaria as an affordable and safe destination for summer holidays.
