Local players have begun to understand one of the most important steps towards developing Bulgaria's tourism: advertising abroad.

Twelve companies have submitted offers for the State Agency on Tourism's (SAT) two competitions for advertising tourism in Bulgaria. The agency announced the competitions at the end of July.

Seven of the companies are bidding to make a TV commercial, while the other five applied to build the country's booth at international tourism fairs.

The commission in charge of evaluating the offers has five members - an architect, two officials of the SAT, a journalist and a representative of the tour agencies' association.

Some of the bidders demanded more representatives from business in the commission and clearer terms for the preparation of the country's commercial.

The bidders for the national booth are International Fair Plovdiv, Kolorit SB, Krea, Noisy Design & Advertising and Eurapel Communications.

The participants in the tender for a TV spot are BUS Media, Prima, Global Film, Ido Stil, PR Consortium, Kres and PR Media.

Meanwhile, Bulgaria has continued its presence at a number of international tourism exhibitions.

Bulgaria was featured for the sixth time in a row as a tourist destination at the International Travel Show in Warsaw (TT Warsaw Tour & Travel).
SAT organised the participation of the companies DM Travel, Bulgaria Holidays, Solvex, and Balkan Express Travel Assistance.

The show came as Polish tourists continue to flow into Bulgaria. Between January and July 2006, Polish visitors totalled 64 062, a 7.34 per cent increase from last year over the same period. That follows a 4.37 per cent rise in the annual flow of Poles for 2005, when they totalled 113 544 for the whole year.

In recent years, more than 25 Polish agents have sold Bulgaria travel packages. These include some major players on the market: Scan Holidays (part of the TUI chain), Rainbow Tours, Itaka, Alfa Star, Ecco Holiday, Open Travel Group, FIRO Tour and Orbis Travel.

Ten Bulgarian companies participated in the international travel and tourism fair Otdih (Leisure) 2006, which took place in Moscow between September 19 and 22.

The Bulgarian exhibitors in Moscow included tour operators Albena, Alma Tour BG, KITT, Tural, Balkan Express, On Travel and Balkan Express Travel Assistance.

The 2006 edition of the Moscow fair focuses on the winter resorts in Germany, Austria and Bulgaria. Bulgarian tourism companies offered a combination of winter tourism and balneology treatment, spa and cultural tourism.

The Russian market is becoming more important to Bulgarian tourism companies, whose efforts are the main reason why Russian tourists' interest in Bulgaria is on the rise.

Bulgaria received 20 000 Russian tourists in the first three months of 2006, up more than 34 per cent from last year.

In another development, Spain included Bulgaria for the first time on its list of potential markets from where it wants to lure more tourists, said representatives of the Spanish provinces who visited Sofia for the first time on September 19 and 20.

The meetings, in which some 100 Bulgarian tourism companies participated, were organised by the Spanish Tourist Institute and co-ordinated by the SAT.

More than 100 000 Bulgarian tourists visited Spain in 2005, Spanish representative Felix del Paz said. Spain will make a thorough analysis of Bulgarians' visits to Spain in order to set a target number, Del Paz said.

Barcelona and Madrid are the most popular Spanish destinations for Bulgarians. There is also a growing interest in tourist packages that bring more Bulgarians to Spain's seaside resorts. Spain's objective is to bring more tourists to Valencia, Malaga and the Catalunya coast, Del Paz said.

Bulgaria has the capacity to prove quite attractive a destination to Spanish tourists. The latter would be interested in seeing Bulgaria's cultural and historical monuments, the Spanish guests said.