Tourism in Bulgaria

The World Tourism Organisation describes Bulgaria as one of the most appealing “new faces” in the tourism industry today. Almost 5 million tourists visited Bulgaria in 2004 but the major growth of the tourism in Bulgaria was in 2002, which was a massive 14 percent increase in tourists compared with the previous year.

The biggest increase was noticed among the tourists from the European Union. The most attracting assets are Bulgarian Black Sea beaches (Sozopol, Nessebur, Golden Sands, Sunny Beach, Albena, Warna). The capital city - Sofia is also an attractive tourist point as well as spa situated in the Macedonian region (Momin Prohod, Hisaria, Bankia, Velingrad and Sandanski).

As with most major tourist destinations, visitor numbers peak and dip seasonally. The summer months see the arrival of over 50 percent of Bulgaria’s annual tourists, compared with only 14 percent between January and March. Peak time for the tourism in Bulgaria is considered to be between April and October for the coastal areas, while rental in the skiing resorts hitting peak time between December and March.