Tourism grew. Tourism changed. Tourism had troubles.

According to Bulgaria’s State Agency for Tourism, the number of tourists who came to the country in January-October 2006 was five per cent higher than in the same period of 2005.

Most of this growth was in tourists from the United Kingdom, Ireland and Scandinavian countries, but also from Serbia, Montenegro and Romania.

Earnings went up, too. Revenue was just less than five per cent higher than in 2005, adding up in 2006 to 1.79 million euro.

To count heads, Bulgaria was visited by 4 578 202 foreign non-transit tourists in 2006.

A warm and long autumn prolonged the 2006 tourist season.

In the first nine months of the year, it was mostly German tourists – a total of 514 994 – that visited Bulgaria. Serbians followed, a total of 508 232, Greeks 475 401, Macedonians 441 368, Brits 394 519, Romanians 311 980 and Russians 205 092. From France came 77 897 tourists, from Austria 55 424 and from the Netherlands 57 286.

The EU remained the most important market for international tourism in Bulgaria, with a relative share of 53.15 per cent, even though the number of tourists from old member states slightly decreased, by 0.10 per cent, while the share of tourists from new member states increased by 1.29 per cent.

At the same time, 2006 may be described as the year of the return of Central Europeans to Bulgaria, given that an increasing proportion of holidaymakers at Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast came from Central and Eastern European countries.

In 2006, the share of alternative tourism grew in Bulgaria – adventure, cultural, eco- and agri-tourism, overall one of the most interesting changes in European tourism trends over the past few years. While adventure and cultural tourism have older roots, eco- and agri-tourism opportunities began to emerge as an alternative to the customary sea and ski. Eco-tourism embraces a wide range of activities, notably including appreciation of flora and fauna, such as bird watching and wildlife photography. Tourists who opt for eco-tourism may combine their holidays with nature conservation activities. Often grouped together with eco-tourism is agri-tourism, because companies specialising in this field usually are involved in both. It is hands-on stuff, with tourists staying on farms or at traditional homesteads, watching and sometimes getting involved in cultivation or harvesting, for example.

Many tourists were also drawn to the wild Black Sea beaches or undeveloped mountain areas in the past year, even while disputes arose around construction sites in protected areas. The defenders of the wild beach at Irakli attracted most of the attention, as the nature conservation and environmentalist movement in Bulgaria campaigned to protect unspoilt nature, while land-owners in the area countered to try to protect their property rights – and possible opportunities to allow the land to be developed for mass tourism. In early July 2006, large numbers of people visited Irakli beach for first time simply because of the publicity generated around the issue. In a tradition time-honoured in Bulgaria, they awaited the sunrise on July Morning.

On July 2, the southern Bulgarian Sea coast was hit by torrential rains, which damaged roads, flooded hotels, residential and office buildings, and threatened the just-started summer season. Nessebar municipality, which administers the biggest Bulgarian Black Sea resort Slunchev Bryag (Sunny Beach), with close to 70 000 tourists visiting at the time, as well as Irakli, was among the worst-damaged regions. The rains prompted Nessebar mayor Nikolai Trifonov to declare a state of emergency on July 2.

On August 4, a temporary victory was scored by the grassroots movement Daspasimirakli.com (Let’s Save Irakli). On that day, Environment and Water Affairs Minister Djevdet Chakurov signed an order banning for one year various activities, including construction in the Irakli region.

Elsewhere along the coast, there were the now-customary problems with some developers not abiding by the summer moratorium on construction, and some negative media reports abroad about excessive construction spoiling visitors’ holidays. There was continuing concern about whether resorts’ infrastructure would cope with the strains caused by the rash of building.

As the heat of summer gave way to autumn, the Ukraine 2006 international travel fair saw the State Agency for Tourism receive a crystal globe award on October 13 for promoting Bulgaria as an attractive destination.

In December, the National Hospitality Management Club (NHMC) said that prices in Bulgaria’s hotels and restaurants would increase within the coming year because of the costs of meeting EU quality requirements. Owners of hotels and restaurants have to meet EU standards for food quality, environmental protection and customers’ safety, and only one per cent of Bulgarian hotels and restaurants had managed to do so at that point. Given these requirements, only big hotels would be able to maintain their prices and positions on the market, the NHMC said, as quoted by mediapool.bg.  

At the end of 2006, it was announced that after Bulgaria joined the EU, it would be eligible for financial aid for its tourism sector.

Destinations proposed by municipalities would compete for EU funds after 2008.