Yachts and hunting will bring rich tourists to Bulgaria

Standard Daily, *with excerpts, 31st August 2005

The foreign holiday-makers spend between 500 and 800 euro for 10 days in Bulgaria, Deutsche Welle maintains

Yachts, hunting and luxurious hotels are the factors that may attract wealthy foreign tourists to Bulgaria. This is what Gerth Verle, an owner of a PR agency in the tourism branch, states before Deutsche Welle. In his opinion, Bulgaria is very original and it has its own specific charm. This potential of Bulgaria may be used and promoted in Europe. This is the only way that the wealthy foreign tourists prefer the Bulgarian Black Sea coast for their holiday. The solvent German tourists may be attracted with something unexpected and challenging, the expert explains.

The rich Europeans like to be on the yachts they have hired before hand very shortly after their landing. Or to start hunting on individually mapped out routes in the wild nature. They are ready to pay good money but in return they demand real adventures, Verle is explicit. Most of the European tourists are impressed with the nature near Emine cape and with the Bulgarian mountains. Vacation is not just cheap beer and luxurious hotels with a swimming pool around, the German tour-operators say.

The chance of the Bulgarian tourism is to avoid the cliches of being a cheap destination and to offer luxury to the wealthy Westerners.

The small ports in the Bulgarian resorts, where the holiday-makers may cast the anchors of their yachts, are very attractive for the foreign tourists. Thus, the tourists have the opportunity to sail along the whole Bulgarian Black Sea coast and to visit all vacation complexes.

According to unofficial data, the average foreign tourist spends between 500 and 800 euro per 10 days. But if yacht tourism is offered, the revenues from the foreign holiday-makers may increase up to 5 times. The hunting tourism is another alternative for Bulgaria. Some 4,500 hunters come to Bulgaria annually. But if this product is included in the catalogues of the big Western tour-operators, the number of the foreign holiday-makers will be increased by several times.

The researches show that the European tourists prefer countries like Bulgaria, Turkey, Croatia, Egypt and Tunisia to the expensive Italian and Spanish resorts. The rating tables show that the Bulgarian tourism develops 5 times faster than the world tourism. According to the data of the Ministry of Economy, Bulgaria was visited by a record number of foreign tourists in 2004. Over 4.5 million people from Great Britain, Germany, USA, Japan, Egypt and the Balkan countries had their holidays in Bulgaria last year. This means that the Bulgarian tourism has registered a growth of 25% compared to 2003 and revenues of $2 billion, Deutsche Welle generalizes. Over 85% of the foreign tourists that visited Bulgaria in 2004 are ready and willing to return to Bulgaria again for their holiday.

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