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At their latest working meeting, deputy head of Rostourism Roman Skorii and Bulgaria’s ambassador to Russia Boyko Kotsev announced an agreement between the two sides to launch a school group exchange programme.
The programme includes a planned visit by Bulgarian schoolchildren to Moscow during celebrations of the 71st anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War, together with visits to military history sites. A tour of Bulgaria is planned for Russian schoolchildren to introduce them to monuments and landmarks connected with Russian soldiers and the Soviet soldiers who liberated the country. The itinerary includes the Shipka National Park Museum, Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, the monument to Alexander II and other sites. The Russian pupils are also scheduled to meet their Russian-speaking peers from Bulgarian schools.
Roman Skorii and Boyko Kotsev also discussed organising pilgrimage tours to Bulgaria, which has many Orthodox monuments and holy sites. At the end of the meeting, the two sides agreed to strengthen contacts in tourism and arrange press tours for journalists.
At the meeting between Oleg Safonov and Boyko Kotsev held a few months earlier, Bulgarian tourism authorities had announced a reduction in the visa price for Russian citizens to €10, an exemption from consular fees for children under 16 and other measures. These steps by the Bulgarian government followed a decline in the number of tourists from Russia in 2015.
