Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelova held working meetings with representatives of the Russian tourism industry in Moscow on 13 November 2017.
“Thank you for the good summer season, and it was calm and safe for Russian tourists”, Oleg Safonov, the Head of the Russian Federal Agency for Tourism said during a working meeting with the Minister of Tourism Nikololina Angelkova. Safonov stated his belief that achievements in the bilateral relations with Bulgaria will develop further. “We reported an extremely good season. From January to September our country was visited by over 530 thousand Russian tourists”, Minister Angelkova announced the NSI data and thanked the Head of the Russian Tourism for the good partnership.
Another major issue of their talks was the possibility for creating joint tourist cruise routes in the Black Sea. Bulgarian-Russian relations in tourism are successfully developing, our joint work yields positive results, Minister Angelkova said and added that a programme for cooperation 2018-2020 is due to be signed. She pointed out that Russia is one of the strategic tourist markets for Bulgaria.
At the Inturmarket exhibition, to be held in March 2018 in Moscow, a round table will be organized having as its main focus the different types of tourism in Bulgaria. We will present to the Russian audience the possibilities for spa and balneological, culinary, wine, child tourism and other options for vacation in Bulgaria.
Minister Angelkova and the Head of Russian Tourism Safonov also discussed the opportunity for organizing a round table to present the potential for exchange of experience in the field of education in the two countries. Both of them agreed with the idea that the practice of exchanging students between Russia and Bulgaria to enhance the quality of education should be strengthened and further developed.
Minister Angelkova invited Oleg Safonov and representatives of the tourist sector of Russia to the International Congress on World Civilizations and Ancient Routes to the World Tourism Organization, to be held in Sofia on 14-16 November next year.
Bulgarian Ministry of Tourism and Ural Tourism Association signed a memorandum of cooperation.
The Minister of Tourism Nikolina Angelkova and the Executive Director of the Ural Tourism Association (UTA) Mihail Maltsev signed in Moscow a memorandum of cooperation in the field of tourism, hospitality and investments.
The ceremony took place in the framework of the working meetings of Minister Angelkova with representatives of the Russian tourism industry.
The ministry and the association will partner effectively in the preparation of events in the sector and will have mutual exchange of statistical, advertising and other promotional materials.
UTA is one of the lead organizations in tourism in the Russian Federation. The association was founded in 1996 in Ekaterinburg and is one of the most active partners of the Ministry of Tourism, which participates on a regular basis in the most significant tourist exhibition in Ural Federal District – “Leto” (“Summer”). In April this year 250 exhibitors took part in the exchange and the visitors exceeded 8 thousand and Bulgaria was a partner country.
In the past year our country was visited by over 580 thousand Russian tourists, marking a growth of some 20 per on 2015. Most active were the guests from the Ural region.